June 26, 2001 Bush-Putin news conference in Slovenia:
“I looked the man (Putin) in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul, a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country. And I appreciated so very much the frank dialogue…”
Sept. 27, 2003, news conference with Putin at Camp David, Md.:
“… I respect President Putin’s vision for Russia: a country at peace within its borders, with its neighbors and with the world, a country in which democracy and freedom and rule of law thrive.”
I’ll leave out the first quotes before Dubya took power… which he seems to have forgotten himself. Well the point is… how much of Dubya’s talking about Putin was window dressing… and how much of it was authentic from Bush Jr ? (With Bush its hard to know…)
Now if it was truly his mind speaking… and with the latest dirty stuff going on in Ukraine (including poisoning) which Putin tried to support … will this make Bush evaluate his own judgement failure ? Will there be a reality check ? After all Putin and Bush are two tough guys… and seemed to have some “rapport”.
Now if it was only political BS... how much has the US- Russia relation suffered ? Bush was after all so praising of what seems a very anti-democratic Russian boss. Will the US be "forced" to raise criticism of Putin ? Or is the "War on Terror" worth accepting Putin's dirty ways ? Will Checyna be seen as a horrendous human rights disaster fighting "terror" ?
In a way… if Bush is too soft on Putin wouldn’t it be appeasment ? Is fighting terrorism and russian oil more important ? Just conjecture… because until now Bush has been soft with Checyna for example… but the Ukraine thing he didn’t just let pass.
If Putin is becoming a long term menace is relevant too… if he is just acting the strong man for internal politics its dangerous to confront him too much… if he in fact is spreading his wings too much… clipping them “softly” now is best.
I would not be terribly surprised if Bush had been convinced by Condi Rice that Russia is actually a very important strategic ally for the US. This is pure conjecture, of course, but I note that Rice did devote a significant amount of her life dedicated to the study of the Soviet Union and Russia. Plus, there may be some chemistry between Bush and Putin that have warmed up relations more than deserved. I worry about that, because I don’t trust Putin one single pit. I seriously worry that he has worked his KGB wiles to deceive the President that they are closer than they are. Again, pure conjecture.
The idea that the US and Russia have an important relationship beyond nuclear weapons is essentially bunk. I do not believe that Russia is not on the verge of a reemergence of power, but if I am wrong, that power will be gathered by a strongman using strongarm tactics.
Bottom line: we should probably only cosy up to one large, antidemocratic player on the world stage at a time. Right now, we’re getting cuddly with Russia, Pakistan, and China. I don’t think that’s good news.
The US isn’t exactly cuddly with China… its more commerce anyway than “strategic reasons” (exception being N. Korea).
I don’t like Putin either… but Russia is a key player when dealing with Arabs, Oil and Terrorism up to a point. They aren’t “allies”… but Russians certainly are necessary to Bush more than Bush is to them.
Still I'd like to focus more on the issue of how Bush has viewed Putin in the past and how that was obviously wrong.
I don’t think you can read too much into public statements like those listed in the OP.
When I heard those types of statements I had a few thoughts:
An unstable Russia creates some significant problems for the US
a) Existing nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands
b) Possibility of large scale fighting that ultimately sucks the US in (i.e. world war), or has a negative impact on Russian or Middle Eastern oil, enough to screw our economy
c) Could China extend itself in the chaos?
Putin and Bush are “tough” guys (as noted above), and may have a little respect for each other
Given those thoughts, I assumed our position on Russia was geared towards supporting Putin as a stabilizer.
