WALLACE: I'll start with you, Senator Biden: Do you believe -- I understand it's speculation, but do you believe that Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, is involved? And whether we can prove that or not, how should it affect our relations with Russia?Together in perfect harmony.BIDEN: Well, I don't know whether he's involved, but our relations with Russia have to get straightened out to begin with.
Russia is moving more and more toward an oligarchy here. Putin is consolidating power. He's been doing it for the last six years. We have basically been giving him a bye. I think that Russia is sliding further away from genuine democracy and a free-market system and more toward a command economy and the control of a single man.
So I'm not a big fan of Putin's, and I think we should have a direct confrontation with Putin politically about the need for him to change his course of action.
WALLACE: I was just going to bring in Senator Graham.
In the time left, your thoughts about Putin and what the U.S. needs to do?
GRAHAM: I think Joe is right on. I think Bush misread his soul. I think this guy is taking Russia backward. He's a problem, not a solution, to most of the world's problems. He could help us with Iran if he chose to. He is becoming basically a one-man dictatorship in Russia. And we need to be tough with him.
Russia needs to be part of the international community in a constructive way. They're going backward, not forward. And now's the time for the international community to speak with Russia with one voice: "Change what's going on in Russia. Help us with Iran."
Comments (4)
nothing nothing nothing
drives me further to the left limit then this bear bait
step back
this is yankee encirclement
in constrictor mode
notice if u will...
the actions of uncle
post soviet collapse
don't they "prove"
just exactly
who
kept the kold war
in europe going
past the berlin air lift
past the italian elections of 47
past even the post stalin
"co existence "
peace feelers of 53
Posted by js paine | December 4, 2006 4:07 PM
Posted on December 4, 2006 16:07
Putin dumped their drunk puppet Yeltsin and sent Boris Berezovsky and the rest of the blood suckers packing.
It's time we dump these two puppets and run the bloodsuckers they work for out of this country.
Posted by Jesus Reyes | December 4, 2006 6:00 PM
Posted on December 4, 2006 18:00
What's that, Senator? Russia is moving towards...oligarchy?
D'ahh ha ha hah. Takes one to know one, eh Senator?
On a related subject, has anyone wondered just what the hell's gotten into the Russian people to cause them to elect a President who suspiciously resembles an aged, embittered Ilya Kuryakin*?
*a character from the old The Man From U.N.C.L.E. series, for you non-Boomers out there.
Posted by Mike Flugennock | December 4, 2006 7:21 PM
Posted on December 4, 2006 19:21
And just what's wrong with that "drunk puppet" Yeltsin?
If nothing else, I'd cut him a break for being the only world leader with the guts to show up at major state functions obviously soused. That's right, major world leadership is on the job schnockered. At least old Boris was honest about it.
Perhaps that's what we need here -- more drunken government, and more drunken voters.
I know the very last time I voted, in '04, I made a point of getting up extra early, slamming down a couple of pints of Guinness and six or seven bong hits and slipping out of the house and down to the polls right when they opened. I can't tell you how liberating it was to sashay in there, among the first to vote, in my most severely knee-ripped jeans and black trenchcoat and not even attempting to conceal just how blasted out my mind I was. Just my personal "fuck you" to the whole system...instead of not voting, I not only showed up to vote, but showed up in a state where I was just barely able to present my registration card to the clerk, sign the book, wander into the booth, and punch the friggin' chads out of the card.
I figured, after the better part of a year enduring the wretchedest, awfulest, weirdest, most SNL-like campaign I've witnessed in my entire life, it certainly wouldn't make things any worse if I voted drunk at 7am.
But, aaaaaaaanyway, long story short, I have absolutely no problem with drunken leadership. Couldn't possibly make things any worse. I mean, shit, gang; look who we're saddled with now.
Posted by Mike Flugennock | December 4, 2006 7:46 PM
Posted on December 4, 2006 19:46