October 18, 2004
Vlad The Endorser
Vladimir Putin praises Bush re-election - cross him off the list of global leaders that support Kerry...
Russian leader Vladimir Putin waded into the foray of the US election with a very salient endorsement of President Bush.
Foreign leaders are usually fairly restrained in discussing US Presidential elections - considering that they don't want to offend someone they may end up having to deal with. But Putin came out with a very strong, and strongly reasoned, endorsement of President Bush, including a precise assessment of the current situation in Iraq:
"Any unbiased observer understands that attacks of international terrorist organizations in Iraq, especially nowadays, are targeted not only and not so much against the international coalition as against President Bush..."
Putin continues even further:
"If they succeed in doing that, they will celebrate a victory over America and over the entire anti-terror coalition...In that case, this would give an additional impulse to international terrorists and to their activities, and could lead to the spread of terrorism to other parts of the world..."
Blunt and eloquently precise at the same time. This doesn't mean terrorists should determine the US election by forcing a reaction against their impulses - but Putin clearly understands the nature of the enemy, though belatedly somewhat in Iraq.
Putin doesn't put all of his eggs in Bush's basket though:
"Because of this we must take a realistic approach and be prepared for any development of events...We respect any choice the American people will make."
A very smooth endorsement of the American representative democracy - even if some his Putin's own actions domestically seem to run against that same democratic grain.
Posted by MEC2 at October 18, 2004 04:29 PM