President Putin is trying to toss a monkey wrench into our Iraq project (no change in Kremlin policy there, that's for sure):
"Honestly speaking, I cannot imagine how it is possible to organize elections under the conditions of occupation by foreign forces," Putin said in televised comments during a Kremlin meeting with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
He can't imagine?
Let's see. Elections. Violence. Under the conditions of occupation by foreign forces. I can't imagine where I've seen that recently.
Oh yes, now I remember, that would be Chechnya. The recent election there led Putin to gush:
Russian president Vladimir Putin called Alkhanov’s victory a “beginning of big and highly important work in the arrangement of peaceful life, the restoration of economics and social life in the Chechen republic,” Interfax news agency reported.
Why Putin thinks he has to imagine elections in a country enduring violence and occupation by troops from another country is beyond me. All he has to do is remember.
Not that I don't wish the Russians the best in going after the monsters of Beslan. I do. Those children didn't deserve that. But my sympathy doesn't cross over into understanding why the Russians would thwart us. Nor do I pine for the Cold War days. But again, when Russia is trying to screw us over, we can't ignore it.
We need to push for free elections in Iraq and in Ukraine. That Russia under Putin considers those free elections to be contrary to Russian interests should tell us a lot. We are beyond "trust but verify" but not by much it seems.
