It's always the "other guy" threatening the world.
They put this on the same page with China, so I guess they are trying to telegraph something, huh?
"Russian president follows Putin policy; Pursues assertive global strategy" by Peter Finn, Washington Post | July 16, 2008
MOSCOW - President Dmitry Medvedev signaled yesterday that Russian foreign policy, ostensibly now under his control, will not stray from the often contentious course set by his predecessor. Former president Vladimir Putin, now the prime minister, had clashed with the West on a host of issues, including the installation of a US missile defense system in Eastern Europe and the eastward expansion of the NATO alliance.
Medvedev said Russia, buoyed by petro-dollars and increasing self-confidence, will continue to pursue the kind of assertive global role that Putin made a centerpiece of his foreign policy.
Medvedev, speaking to a gathering of Russia's senior diplomats at the Foreign Ministry in Moscow:
"Russia has become stronger and is capable of assuming greater responsibility for solving problems on both a regional and global scale."
In recent days, the continuity of Putin's foreign policy under Medvedev was visible in several different arenas.
On Friday, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have punished Zimbabwe's leadership for the conduct of presidential elections in which opposition supporters were killed and beaten so as to prevent any challenge to the incumbent, Robert Mugabe.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to the United Nations, accused Russia of reneging on a commitment made at the Group of Eight industrial countries summit in Japan this month to support sanctions. He said the veto "raises questions about its reliability as a G-8 partner." But Russian officials, who publicly bristled at the criticism, said Medvedev never committed himself to UN sanctions.
Analysts here said it was never likely that Russia would join any UN effort to punish another country for fraudulent elections. Elections in Russia, including the one that brought Medvedev to office, and votes in allied neighboring countries such as Uzbekistan, have been the subject of criticism by Western election observers.
Medvedev also attacked US plans to install a missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland:
"Deployment of elements of the US global anti-missile system in Eastern Europe only makes the situation worse."
Last week, two days after the Czech Republic signed a formal agreement with the United States for deployment of a radar system, Russian oil supplies to the country suddenly dipped. Russian officials said the reasons were technical and commercial. But the slowdown immediately raised suspicions that the Kremlin was using its power as a major energy supplier to punish the Czech Republic.
The Czech Foreign Ministry, in a statement:"Russia has provided no plausible explanation so far except that there are problems with oil extraction, but this is hard to believe given the fact that neighboring countries face no cuts whatsoever.
--MORE--"
Good thing the U.S. never uses economic power to punish people, huh?
Yes, I am sick of the bullshit, can you tell?
