The West Must Set a Strategy for a Resurgent Russia
Financial Times
March 9, 2007
By ANATOL LIEVEN
Soon after I arrived in Moscow as a correspondent at the start of 1993, Andrei Kozyrev, the then Russian foreign minister, made a speech warning that if the west continued to ignore Russia's vital interests and publicly humiliate the country, there would one day be a Russian reaction that would sweep away the new partnership with the west that he and other Russian liberals were trying to build. A western colleague scrawled on a transcript of his remarks: "More of Kozyrev's ravings." Thus were dismissed out of hand the reasonable concerns of the most pro-western foreign minister that Russia has ever had.
One Cold War Was Enough
Washington Post
February 25, 2007
By SERGEI LAVROV
There has been much misinterpretation in the West since President Vladimir Putin's recent speech at the Munich Conference on Security Policy. From the reaction of some Western journalists and politicians, one would think that the Russian president wished to ignite a blast of anti-American rhetoric to spark another Cold War. Defense Secretary Robert Gates got it right when he responded by asserting that "one Cold War was quite enough." Indeed it was, so let's not declare -- or look for a pretext to declare -- a new one. At a time when Russia is ready and eager to play a positive role in world affairs and integrate into the global economy, it does far more harm than good to treat Russia as a hostile nation whenever Moscow and Washington disagree.
Putin's Moment To Seize
Washington Post
February 14, 2007
By DAVID IGNATIUS
MOSCOW -- Vladimir Putin made headlines last weekend when he blasted the Bush administration for its "almost uncontained hyper-use of force" that has created a world where "no one feels safe." If he had been a Democratic presidential candidate, it would have been a standard stump speech. But coming from a Russian president, his remarks had pundits ruminating about a new Cold War.
Putin Pushes Back
New York Times
February 14, 2007
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Foreign policy experts are still trying to parse Vladimir Putin's
weekend blast against America, which he described as a brutish
country that ''has overstepped its national borders, in every
area.'' But rather than asking what exactly motivated Mr. Putin to
lash out at the U.S. in this way, the question we should be asking
is: why do remarks like these play so well in Russia today?
Putin's Speech at the Munich Conference on Security Policy
http://www.kremlin.ru
February 10, 2007
VLADIMIR PUTIN: Thank you very much dear Madam Federal Chancellor, Mr Teltschik, ladies and gentlemen!
I am truly grateful to be invited to such a representative conference that has assembled politicians, military officials, entrepreneurs and experts from more than 40 nations.
This conference’s structure allows me to avoid excessive politeness and the need to speak in roundabout, pleasant but empty diplomatic terms. This conference’s format will allow me to say what I really think about international security problems. And if my comments seem unduly polemical, pointed or inexact to our colleagues, then I would ask you not to get angry with me. After all, this is only a conference. And I hope that after the first two or three minutes of my speech Mr Teltschik will not turn on the red light over there.
Vladimir Putin Interview at the Annual Valdai Conference
Financial Times | http://www.ft.com
September 10, 2006
An edited transcript of a meeting on between Russian President Vladimir Putin and foreign academics and journalists, including Stefan Wagstyl, the FT’s East Europe Editor. Held over lunch at the Novo Ogarevo, the presidential mansion outside Moscow, on September 9.
US open to Ukraine's 'New' Yanukovych
AFP
August 6, 2006
In the heady days after the "orange revolution," Ukraine fitted the US government's script perfectly, as the White House charted a generational drive for global democratic change.
Russia's Very Own Road From Serfdom
Wall Street Journal: Letter to the editor
August 5, 2006
Your July 15 editorial "Putin Village" presents a profile of Russia and the Russian economic experience that is very much at variance with reality. Russia is committed to democratic principles and free market processes. We are not, nor should we be, committed to adopt the governmental institutions and processes currently in place in the United States.
Russia: Ideological Doctrine Paves Kremlin's Course
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 4, 2006
By VICTOR YASMANN
Two developments have become obvious in the wake of the recent G8 Summit in St. Petersburg: Russia's rising political and economic clout, and growing concern in the West that the Kremlin might abuse it. But talk of a reversal in Russia's intention of following its own democratic path may be misguided.
How the Orange Revolution Lost Its Juice
The Times (UK): Foreign Editor's Briefing
August 4, 2006
By BRONWEN MADDOX
UKRAINIANS might well wonder why they bothered. The bright 2004 Orange Revolution has turned a muddy, burnt orange shade now that President Yushchenko has been forced to take his arch-foe into the heart of his Government.