Cheney pointed out that Russia has backslid on democracy since Putin took office. True or not? ==
The cardinal question. Honestly I would say that russian democracy is far behind american. And Russia needs long way to go.
But Cheney critisized Russia on hypocritical presumptions and simply wrong examples. So Cheney's critics are wrong and nontrustworsy.
But the answer about the progress of russian democracy - I not sure what it will be in that point. Probably something better then in TUrkey but worser then in France:).
You point out correctly that democracy has different speeds and paths of development in different countries (France v Turkey), so your main criticism of Cheney's remarks is that he didn't blast Kazakhstan for their lack of democracy. Kazakhstan is clearly behind Russia in terms of democratic development, but you think that should be his primary message to Nazarbayev should be to democratize. Because if that isn't the message then Bush is being hypocritical. This strikes me as naive.
Do you think his blasting of Belarus as "the last dictatorship in Europe" was justified or just hypocritical?
Should Cheney not criticize any country if they regress in terms of democracy because other countries are even further behind?