New Reply

Post a Reply

Thread: Resurgent Russia poses rising challenge for U.S?

Title: (100 characters at most)

Content: ( 3,000 characters at most, please )

You can add emoticons below to your post by clicking them.

[quote=SUMMERSNOW,266979]* Russia's Navy has test-fired tactical missiles off the coasts of France and Spain, the kind of action not seen since the Cold War. The clear intent was to show Russia is again a military power.

* Former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who wants to run for president, is being subjected to investigations, the latest crackdown on any credible opposition. Meanwhile, Putin's handpicked successor is being promoted around the country and appears headed for overwhelming victory in the election on March 2.

* Andrei Lugovoi, a man suspected of poisoning a Putin critic in London, has become a member of the Russian parliament with immunity from prosecution. Another Russian has just landed a senior government post, months after his release from a Swiss jail where he served time for murdering a Swiss air traffic controller.

* Putin is offering a bear hug of nationalist solidarity and economic incentives to Serbia. He champions Serbia's claim to Kosovo, countering the U.S. view that the Serb province deserves independence. Russia has also just bought Serbia's national oil monopoly and is extending a gas pipeline there.
Putin's aims are no mystery. He wants to revive as much of the old Soviet influence as possible. He's in a much stronger position than in 2001. Unlike then, Russia is flush with oil and gas money, and it has paid off debts to international banks and organizations.

Speaking on Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that Russia is guilty of "unwise and irresponsible rhetoric," but that talk about a new Cold War is "hyperbolic nonsense."

Maybe so, but the next U.S. president will need to understand the complex challenge Putin has created — and, almost certainly, will have to do business with Putin himself. Though Putin is barred from standing for a third presidential term, he clearly intends to remain Russia's guiding power.

Russia can't be ignored. It has influence in arenas vital to U.S. security, including in Iran and across the Middle East. It also has a veto on the United Nations Security Council. The next U.S. president will need to play a chess-like power game with Grandmaster Putin. At the same time, he or she has to continue pushing the idea that the future of Russia is best served by more democracy.

The message from the White House, in other words, needs to be less soul-searching and a bigger dose of calculated frankness.

[/quote]

characters left

Name:

Get a new code