Condoleezza Rice Gives us Half a Loaf on Russia
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U.S. Secretary of State had a roundtable discussion with the editors of the USA Today newspaper on December 11th. Here's what she said about Vladimir Putin's announcement that he wants his sycophant Dmitri Medvedev to succeed him (other topics were discussed at much greater length, click through the link to read the transcript):
When asked what kind of president she thought of Medvedev would be and about the manner of his elevation, she initially responded: "Well, I guess they're still going to have an election in March." At that, the room burst into laughter. The questioner then observed "they used to have elections in Communist . . ." and Rice interrupted saying: "They did, and 99.9 percent."
Then she stated: "Look, I think we've made it very clear that we think democratic processes have taken a step back in Russia, and the elections even for the Duma were not up to international standards. It's been very difficult for opposition to operate in that country. It's been very difficult for them to have access to the press, access to assembly. You've had people arrested. It's not an environment in which you can talk about free and fair elections. I would hope that the time will come when Russia is going into a presidential election where there is a realistic chance for a really contested election, and I think that, to me, is the biggest problem with this."
So, clearly and unequivocally, the U.S. Secretary of State, a diplomat, mocked and condemned the basic electoral processes of a fellow G-8 member. It's hard to understate the scathing, contemptuous tone of these remarks, given that they are coming to us in diplomaticspeak. So far, so good. This is real American leadership, something to be proud of.
But then, as seems to have been the hallmark of the Bush administration, Condi jumps the rails with two additional points. First, she says: "I do know Dmitri Medvedev, I met him on a number of occasions. And he is a very intelligent person, he is of another generation." That's just not true. Medvedev received his college diploma when Russia was the USSR, and in the very same place and in the very same subject as Vladimir Putin. They studied "law" in a country that didn't even know the meaning of the word. In other words, he has no education at all, save for one in Communist propaganda. It's a remark that sounds, eerily, like what her boss said about Putin himself when he "looked into his eyes and saw his soul" eight years ago. It sounds like Condi is falling in Putin's trap, doing exactly what he wants her to do.
Second, when asked whether Medvedev had secret KGB ties and would be a lackey of Putin, she replies: "I can't read that. I'm not sure, by the way, anybody can. Events will unfold and he will carry out his responsibilities. I think we'll just have to watch this space and see how this all plays out." Watch this space? Watch the USA Today newspaper to find out what is going on in Russia? Yikes! (By the way, "this space" is actually a PDF document, her comments appeared in a link within a story focusing on her discussion of Israel not in the paper itself; you can hear her comments in audio file links also found in that story if you are so inclined, including her Russia remarks). Is she telling us we should drop our guard and wait for Putin to slug us in the gut before we take action to protect ourselves? Is she saying that notwithstanding all her brutal comments about how Putin is crushing democracy in Russia, we should stand idly by and gape while he snuffs out the last flickering embers of freedom and consolidates his dictatorship?
It really does begin to seem that this administration is a spent force. Thankfully, the winds of change are already blowing. Things are going from the frying pan to the fire in Russia, and remarks like these are the type that could live in the infamy of history. Little time remains for the Bush administration to get Russia right. Noted Russian scholar Andrei Illarionov has more words of criticism for Condi in the Washington Post. If she cares about her legacy, she'll heed them immediately.
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