First of all Vladimir Putin, anti-war president of Russia told Democrats that they had no moral right to criticize the Bush Administration on the war on Iraq as a result of their support for action in Kosovo and now he tells the press that Russia gave the Bush administration intelligence after 9/11, which suggested that Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was preparing terrorist-style attacks on the United States.
Both are boons for the Bush administration coming from an anti-war ally. I honestly couldn’t make sense of it other than to suggest that Putin was leaning back towards Bush on Iraq. However this doesn’t seem entirely in character, Russia more than anything wants to ensure that its oil trade continues unhindered and supporting the US in Iraq was entirely unconscionable for a country which had so much money tied up in Saddam’s regime.
However Roger L Simon has struck the nail on the head, in my opinion.
So the operative question is why Putin opened his mouth now. The man is not exactly a pop-off (not KGB style). What we could be watching… and here I may be contradicting myself because I dismissed the value of this… [No, don’t do that. You’ll never work in this town again.—ed. I wasn’t anyway.]… is a quiet pay-back for the Administration’s soft-pedaling the Oil-for-Food Scandal and allied double-dealing by the Russians. Watch Putin now saying things… but not too many things, lest it seem obvious… that support the Administration’s position. We shall see..
He then goes on to say:
An irony just occurred to me. If I am correct (yes, big if) and Putin is beginning to reward Bush for his “discretion” regarding Oil-for-Food, etc., the mainstream media, by soft-pedaling the same villainy, have been the administration’s completely inadvertent allies. Oh, how the head spins in the game of realpolitik!
Arrgh! Too much realpolitik! Pull out! Pull out!
What I need now is a nice “Can the Lib Dems actually hear themselves?” story.
Oliver Kamm is quick to deliver, which is a shame because I really wanted that free soda for it being over 5 minutes late.
Later
John
Posted by John Swaine at June 18, 2004 05:45 PM | TrackBack