Gazeta.ru
March 1, 2005
Vasiliy Sergeyev, They Will Torture Putin With Democracy
The United States will continue criticizing Russia for deviating from
democracy: It turns out that the Bratislava meeting of Presidents Putin and
Bush was just the start of a long conversation. Bush Administration
officials have already developed their chief's cautious criticism of
Russia, and the US Department of State has promptly put out a report on
human rights violations in Russia.
The Russian president's recent comments on the specific nature of Russian
democracy and the need to adapt it to Russian conditions did not satisfy
the White House. This became clear once and for all after statements by
Washington officials today. According to an unnamed top official in the US
Administration, the United States intends regularly to convey to Vladimir
Putin Washington's concern at the state of democracy in Russia. "These
problems will be discussed constantly. We take an earnest approach to this
issue. They (Russia -- Gazeta.ru) realize this. They do not like it, but
they understand it," the top official admitted in conversation with Reuters.
The comments by Washington's spokesman necessitate a reassessment of the
results of the Bratislava summit. It is coming to light now that the
discussion by the Kremlin and Washington about democracy in our country has
only just begun. It turns out that the assurances which Bush and Putin gave
each other about friendship and respect have certainly not eliminated the
issue. This means that the Kremlin will have to go on explaining the steps
to centralize power, the military operations in Chechnya, the unjustified
judicial prosecutions, and the oppression of the mass media. It is not
entirely clear why Bush remained silent on the unresolved problems in the
dialogue on democracy (at the end of the Bratislava summit he seemed to be
satisfied with his Russian colleague's explanations), but there are plenty
of theories. In the opinion of some experts, he believed Putin, and not for
the first time -- that is, he deemed the comments on the specific nature of
Russian democracy to be convincing. In the opinion of others, Bush eased
off on the criticism out of considerations of diplomacy, although he is
still concerned about our country's leaning toward authoritarianism.
Be that as it may, yesterday Bush's people revealed a critical approach to
the Kremlin's policy. In a series of interviews anonymous spokesmen for the
administration commented on the key points of President Putin's speech at
the news conference in Bratislava. As another Washington official
explained, it is, in actual fact, inappropriate and incorrect to draw a
parallel between the appointment of governors in Russia and the system of
electoral colleges in the United States (President Putin made such a
comparison in Bratislava). Washington regards as equally incorrect the
comparison of the Kremlin's pressure on the Russian mass media with the
dismissals of CBS staffers who attempted to "sink" Bush during the
presidential race. The US Administration's spokesmen are convinced that the
Russian correspondent's questions in Bratislava about the recent dismissals
of CNN staffers (the material which they prepared on the army service of
the next US President was deemed unethical) were stage-managed by the
Kremlin.
It is noteworthy that the US State Department's annual report on the human
rights situation in the world coincided in time with the comments by the
White House. It has enumerated violations of democratic liberties in Russia
in detail. This time fresh accusations have been added to the now
traditional ones of extrajudicial executions and kidnappings of people in
Chechnya and restrictions on freedom of speech in Russia -- centralization
of power by the Russian leadership and political pressure on the judicial
system (the report names the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovskiy, in particular,
as having been politically motivated), as well as the assassination of
former Ichkerian president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev by Russian agents in Qatar
and the refusal to investigate the mysterious death of Yuriy Shchekochikhin.
US commentators hope, however, that the Russian-US dialogue will continue
despite the criticism. In the opinion of Reuters, the discussion of
Russia's political choice will continue in Moscow in early May at the
meeting devoted to the 60th anniversary of the victory over fascism. The
next stage of the talks will be the July summit of the G-8 in Scotland. It
is curious that not a single US publication mentions in this connection the
recent proposal by Republican Senator John McCain not to admit Russia to
the summit. Let us recall that McCain made a corresponding statement as a
mark of protest against Moscow's actions over deliveries of nuclear fuel to
Iran. The treaty was signed just a few days after the Bratislava meeting
between Vladimir Putin and George Bush. In the opinion of some experts, the
Russian-Iranian deal is the Kremlin's proportional response to Washington's
criticism of Russian democracy.
Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
