From: Adam <""4thwormcastfromthemolehill\"{at}the field.near
the bridge">

George Sherwood wrote:
> "Phil Payne" 
wrote in message
> news:44b8304c$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>> http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1820276,00.html
>>
>> "George Bush yesterday promised to bring up Russia's human
rights record
>> during tomorrow's G8 summit, but said he did not intend to
"lecture" or
>> "scold" his host, Vladimir Putin."
>>
>> Did I get that right?  Shrub - head of the most repressive and invasive
>> administration since Stalin - is gonna try and lecture Putin?
>
> Statements like this make your arguement look silly.  I know you understand
> the things that Stalin did.  Everything you say that is happening in the US
> and isn't happening IS happening in many places of Russia now and you
> believe every one should look the other way.
>
> Doesn't look like the US is so out of sync on this.
>
> http://www.ft.com/cms/s/a61fe76a-137f-11db-9d6e-0000779e2340.html
> "Only one in five western Europeans believe Vladimir Putin can be trusted,
> according to a Financial Times/Harris poll that also showed just 16 per cent
> of those surveyed would describe Russia as a democracy.
> The poll, carried out on the eve of this weekend's summit in St Petersburg
> of the Group of Eight industrialised nations, shows that Mr Putin has some
> way to go in persuading western Europeans Russia is a reliable friend."
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5167784.stm
>
> "Two years ago he took the rare step of criticising President Putin for
> concentrating too much power in the Kremlin. Today Mr Lisitsyn is a big
> Putin supporter.
>
> When I met him in his office there was a portrait of the president on his
> desk. Why did he change his tune?
>
> Well, the authorities opened a criminal case against him and he was summoned
> to Moscow. He emerged from his meetings in the Kremlin "on
message", the
> charges against him dropped."
>
>

Yeah but wittering about good relations being somehow based on things other
than power & money are foolish waffle.

They have lots of stuff we want. So we'll be nice almost no matter what.

Adam

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