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VILNIUS, LITHUANIA (WaPo) May 5 — Vice President Cheney accused Russia of “unfairly and improperly” restricting the rights of its people and using oil and gas as “tools of intimidation or blackmail” against neighboring countries.
“Russia has a choice to make,” Cheney said. “And there is no question that a return to democratic reform in Russia will generate further success for its people and greater respect among fellow nations.”
US VP Dick Cheney attends a breakfast meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in Vilnius, Lithuania. Cheney took a swipe at Russia over democratic reform as EU leaders pledged to support the new democracies of former communist east Europe and vowed to bring authoritarian Belarus into the fold. AFP/Shawn Thew
Some critics, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), have called on Bush to boycott the G-8 summit in protest of Putin’s suppression of dissent, but the president has rejected such a move as counterproductive. While Cheney said yesterday that the United States supports democracy “through direct aid,” Bush has cut funding for democracy groups in the former Soviet Union in half.
“We have to show some leadership,” former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) said in a speech at the Hoover Institution last week. Edwards, who helped lead a Council on Foreign Relations panel on Russia, said Bush should tell Putin that “if you want to be seen as a legitimate power in the world, a force for good, and you want to look outside and not just inward, then democratic reforms matter.”
Bush, though, wants Moscow’s help on an array of issues, including preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Putin has joined Bush in pressuring Tehran but resists U.N. sanctions. Bush called Putin to lobby him on Iran, but during the call Putin changed the subject and pressed Bush to finish negotiations allowing Russia into the World Trade Organization. Bush vowed to do so “soon.” Aides said that there was no quid pro quo but that they hope to conclude WTO talks before the summit.
Mr. President, this is our first visit to your country, and to see this beautiful part of the world with our own eyes is an experience we’ll always cherish. We’re grateful for the warm and the welcoming spirit of Lithuania. And to the citizens of this land, and to all the countries represented in the hall today, we bring friendship and good wishes from our President, George Bush, and from the people of the United States.
This conference has drawn together men and women from diverse nations and cultures, and from many different callings here today. We have elected and appointed officials, community activists, entrepreneurs, students, brave leaders of color revolutions. We’re united by common ideals, announced at the first gathering of this conference last year: to free this region from all remaining lines of division, from violations of human rights, from frozen conflicts, and to open a new era of democracy. To this place we’ve brought the hopes and the aspirations of the peoples we represent. And from this place we will bold and confidently serve the cause of freedom, security, and peace.
… As maps of Europe traced the receding of an empire and the advance of freedom, the continent left behind the days of artificial division enforced by diplomatic stand-offs and militarized borders. With the consolidation of democracy, and the expansion of NATO and the European Union, countries that once were rivals have become partners.
This progress would not have been possible without leadership — from patriots with names like Sakharov, Mindszenty, Walesa, Havel — who, in decades of striving, challenged dictators, spoke the truth without apology, and refused to compromise their liberty. Their courage and their faithfulness to principle helped tip the balance of Europe toward freedom.
continues …
● Washington Seeks to Steer Central Asian States Toward South Asian Allies
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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
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