Bush meets with Putin
Today in Bratislava, Slovakia, President Bush is expected to meet with Vladimir Putin of Russia and discuss a few issues concerning Russia's present condition, both internally and its dealings with foreign powers, specifically Iran and the Ukraine. My previous post touched on Putin's recent crackdown on dissent, both within the media and his own government (which includes his decision to appoint provincial governors instead of having them be elected). The latest issue of Newsweek featured a short, but informative article on the "many faces of Putin."
Hardly anyone dares to contradict Putin. Everyone saw what happened to Andrei Illarionov in late December, when he objected to Putin's decision to appoint, rather than elect, provincial governors. "Competition in politics is just as important as competition in the economy," Putin's top economic adviser told a packed press conference. "Limiting competition—in all aspects of life—leads to one thing: stagnation." Less than a week later he was replaced as Russia's G8 representative.
Indeed.
Hardly anyone dares to contradict Putin. Everyone saw what happened to Andrei Illarionov in late December, when he objected to Putin's decision to appoint, rather than elect, provincial governors. "Competition in politics is just as important as competition in the economy," Putin's top economic adviser told a packed press conference. "Limiting competition—in all aspects of life—leads to one thing: stagnation." Less than a week later he was replaced as Russia's G8 representative.
Indeed.
posted by Remz Pokorny @ 10:38 AM
1 Comments:
At 6:54 PM,
Robert Taylor said…
I saw the meeting Bush had with Putin. The one where he lectured Mr. Putin that a democracy has to have "checks and balances".
Remarkably brazen, given that the only checks Mr. Bush seems to believe in are those written to the "journalists" Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher and Karen Ryan, the fake TV anchor, to help promote his policies. The administration has given a whole new meaning to checkbook journalism, paying a stupendous $97 million to an outside P.R. firm to buy columnists and produce propaganda, including faux video news releases.
The only balance W. likes is the slavering, Pravda-like "Fair and Balanced" coverage Fox News provides. Mr. Bush pledges to spread democracy while his officials strive to create a Potemkin press village at home. This White House seems to prefer softball questions from a self-advertised male escort with a fake name to hardball questions from journalists with real names; it prefers tossing journalists who protect their sources into the gulag to giving up the officials who broke the law by leaking the name of their own C.I.A. agent.
I liked it when Mr. Putin related his democracy to the US electoral college, reminding Bush that he had come in second in the popular vote in 2000, which is the normal way most democracies work.
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