Rice says Putin has too much power (Condoleezza Rice, Congress, Iran)

[TnHilltopper]

Now I could not help but laugh out loud about this one, I mean members of the Bush administration saying the Russian President has amassed too much power? Now I am non too thrilled about the reemergence of the Russia with such a crafty and almost introverted man behind the wheel but, talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

MOSCOW - The Russian government under Vladimir Putin has amassed so much central authority that the power-grab may undermine Moscow's commitment to democracy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday.

The U.S. is concerned about the centralization of power and democratic backsliding ahead of Russia's legislative and presidential elections in December and March. Putin will step down next year as president. He has said he would lead the ticket of the main pro-Kremlin party in the parliamentary elections and could take the prime minister's job later.

Maybe Putin should remind Rice about the Cuban missile crisis, you think?

Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday received a chilly reception from Putin and senior Russian officials on U.S. proposals for cooperating on a missile defense system in Eastern Europe that Russia vehemently opposes.

So, I guess we might not bring up the Patriot Act, our invertebrate Democratic Congress that gives blank checks to this administration nor should we say anything about there being Presidential candidates who claim they don't even need the approval of Congress to go to war. Dick Cheney, please pick up the white phone in the lobby, there is white smoke emanating from the chimney of the White House

Rice worried by Putin's broad powers - Yahoo! News (broken link)

[skytrekker]

Dr. Rice saying that Putin has 'too much power' is a joke. What about her Boss?

[TnHilltopper]

Originally Posted by skytrekker

Dr. Rice saying that Putin has 'too much power' is a joke. What about her Boss?

In addition to Rice's statements which are almost surreal, I have to wonder if this administration no longer trust Rice enough to "go alone". Stories have recently circulated that Condi has provided the most resistance to confronting Iran so one has to ask them self, is this part of the reason why Gates went along for this trip.

These two have been received about as warmly as a Siberian January morning and judging by the sound of it. The INF treaty may very well be in jeopardy as well future hopes of getting any sanctions against Iran in place.

This is another part of this story, the fact that Russia is clearly starting to voice its concerns with the US position on Iran. Being Russian engineers and scientist as well as a large work force are working on the Bashir Nuclear plant in Iran.

"We believe this work can be much more effective if there are no parallel steps in terms of sanctions against Iran, leaving alone periodic calls to use military force against Iran," Lavrov said during joint talks also with US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

"These unilateral steps stick out from the agreed agenda, they undermine and they impede our collective effort," Lavrov added. "It is extremely important that Iran realises the international community is unified."

[GH0ST..]

russia is becoming a superpower again, and the united states cant handle it. im glad the author of this thread saw the humor in the bush administration making such a claim.

[katzenfreund]

What is she smoking? She and her partners in crime should take a good look in the mirror. Hypocrites.

[NewToCA]

While the noted hypocrisy is appropriate, I too share the view that Putin is overly centralizing power in Russia. Their centralization is very different than ours, it involves business daily operations too.

Fortunately, as terrific as Russia is at being intimidating and underhanded, they are as inept in daily strategic and operations management. The main beneficiary of the overall Russian managerial incompetence will be their economic competitors, primarily China and India.

Russia ends up an economically backward entity with lots of weapons. Overall, they will be left behind on the world's economic stage, eventually resulting in dissatisfaction and discontent among the Russian folks, but not for at least a decade.

[TnHilltopper]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

Russia ends up an economically backward entity with lots of weapons. Overall, they will be left behind on the world's economic stage, eventually resulting in dissatisfaction and discontent among the Russian folks, but not for at least a decade.

When I see foreign nations fleeing their holdings of US greenbacks, rising inflation, bloated and growing military spending, borrowing for this spending at greater and greater rates, the difficulty of wages keeping up with cost of living, I have to wonder if we too are not heading down the same path the old Soviet Union was. While de-centralized government, an over all stronger global economy and system of free trade has kept us a float where they failed, it seems quite possible that fate may be delayed but not vanquished.

The cost of empire is great and almost always its decline is due to economics and the denial of its population to believe that the kingdom is ill.