Bear nettles the eagle, dragon smiles

Asia Times ^ | Dec 10, 2011 | M K Bhadrakumar

[cunning_fish]

From an apparently impromptu remark on Monday, the United States has elevated the Russian parliamentary election held on December 5 to a core issue of US-Russia ties. The dramatic escalation of rhetoric scatters the continued pretences over the Barack Obama administration's "reset" of relations.

In a swift move, Beijing has also stepped forward to express understanding for Moscow. The faultlines will impact on the regional and international situation on a host of issues in the coming period.

To recap, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost no time to offer comment on the Russian parliamentary election when speaking on the sidelines of the Bonn Conference II in Germany on Monday, she aimed barbs at the Kremlin claiming she was

"worried" about the conduct of the ballot and "Russian people, like people everywhere deserve the right to have their voices heard and their votes counted".

Clinton spoke out even before the results of the election were fully available. In fact, a complete vote count was available from the vast regions of Russia only on Wednesday. It revealed that the ruling party United Russia (UR) suffered a severe jolt by losing as many as 77 seats they held in the outgoing 450-member parliament. The UR scraped through with a simple majority of 238 seats.

Clinton made it out to be that the Kremlin orchestrated a Soviet-style 98% victory for the UR. While Western media have gone to town interpreting the result as a big "defeat" for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (who is making a bid for presidency in the election on March 4), Clinton argued in a diametrically opposite direction as if the Kremlin leadership trampled the popular opinion and consolidated its grip on power.

Curiously, Clinton didn't let go the topic

[Colonel Kangaroo]

I wish Mrs. Clinton would shut up about this. None of our business. Between this and her promotion of homosexual rights in other countries, she’s wasting time and American influence on things not vital to American security- the only thing an American government should be worried about. In many ways we’ve had nothing but amateur hour in managing foreign affairs from three administrations since 1993. George Bush the elder is looking better and better.

[momincombatboots]

I agree. How shameful is it for the party of black panther intimidation, plus the forged primary signatures, dead voters and who knows what else, to tell another country how to fix their process. How about starting here hitlery? I also think the early primary and the early voting interfere with our process. Iowa, nor any other state speaks for me. Well now they do, unfortunately.

[Sacajaweau]

She does what she is told. If she doesn’t know when to quit...let her flame.