[Mb-civic] The Truth on Russia

[Michael Butler]

washingtonpost.com 
The Truth on Russia




 Saturday, October 2, 2004; Page A20

 "THE LEADERS of the West must recognize that our current strategy towards
Russia is failing." So bluntly begins an open letter released this week by
115 European and American leaders, ranging from former presidents and prime
ministers to sitting Republican and Democratic senators. At a time when
Western governments are responding slowly, if at all, to the growing
authoritarianism of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the letter offers a
wake-up call -- one that ought to get the attention both of those
governments and of Mr. Putin.

The statement summarizes what now is the most common view about Mr. Putin's
government on both sides of the Atlantic: that it has "systematically
undercut the freedom and independence of the press, destroyed the checks and
balances in the Russian federal system, arbitrarily imprisoned both real and
imagined political rivals, removed legitimate candidates from electoral
ballots, harassed and arrested NGO leaders, and weakened Russia's political
parties." Mr. Putin's foreign policy, the letter adds, "is increasingly
marked by a threatening attitude towards Russia's neighbors and Europe's
energy security, the return of rhetoric of militarism and empire, and by a
refusal to comply with Russia's international treaty obligations." In sum,
it says, "In all aspects of Russian political life, the instruments of state
power appear to be being rebuilt and the dominance of the security services
to grow."

 This analysis is shared by a remarkably diverse range of respected people:
from former dissident and Czech president Vaclav Havel to former prime
ministers of Sweden and Italy and the current head of the German Green
Party; from Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) to
former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright; from liberal policymakers
at the Brookings Institution to their counterparts at the neoconservative
Project for the New American Century. Their assessment of their own
governments is harsh. "Western leaders," they say, "continue to embrace
President Putin in the face of growing evidence that his country is moving
in the wrong direction and that his strategy for fighting terrorism is
producing less and less freedom."

What is to be done? The letter establishes some basic principles. Western
governments must "rethink how and to what extent we engage with Putin's
Russia," and must "put ourselves unambiguously on the side of democratic
forces." Above all, leaders must drop the double standard by which they
insist on democratic progress in the Middle East while ignoring its reversal
in Eurasia. "We must speak the truth about what is happening in Russia," say
these leaders. So they have done; were the Bush administration to follow
their example, Mr. Putin might listen.

 © 2004 The Washington Post Company