I have read nothing lately from Politicians in the USA, that does not say anything but talk down about Russia! McCain is a big issue, with his threats about Russia!
Sen. John McCain said Sunday the United States should respond harshly to Russia’s anti-democratic actions and suggested that President Bush is reconsidering his assessment of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After meeting Putin for the first time in June 2001, Bush said he had been able to gain “a sense of his soul” and had found Putin to be “very straightforward and trustworthy.”
Recalling Bush’s assessment just months after taking office, McCain said: “Look, we all say things that are stupid. I’m sure that the president has re-evaluated his position in light of Putin’s recent actions”.
I was a Republican all my life, looks like McCain has changed that! McCain has serious issues.
Now…
Senator Slams Putin Invitation to NATO:
AP, Reuters – U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, who has worked with Russia on disposing of nuclear materials, questioned whether NATO was right to invite President Vladimir Putin to its summit meeting early next month.
Speaking at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on NATO, Lugar on Tuesday pointed to a recent threat by Putin to target Ukraine with nuclear missiles if the former Soviet republic joins NATO and accepts the deployment of anti-missile defenses on its territory.
At its summit in Bucharest, the alliance will consider whether to invite Ukraine and Georgia to join a program preparing them for membership.
“To invite President Putin into this situation, I suspect, is to give him a meeting in which he intimidates them further,” Lugar said. “In this context, this seems to be very dubious.”
Lugar helped pass legislation, called the Nunn-Lugar Comprehensive Threat Reduction Act, which has helped former Soviet states destroy, dismantle and secure thousands of nuclear warheads and other weapons of mass destruction.
Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Fried, who testified at the hearing, called Putin’s attendance an opportunity to find new ways to cooperate with Russia.
“The challenge, however, is to make sure that NATO takes decisions on issues on their own merits — based on what is good for the alliance and good for the issues at hand — without undue pressure from any outside actors,” Fried said.
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was quoted Wednesday as saying NATO had not yet decided whether to allow Ukraine and Georgia to join the alliance.
Asked when NATO plans to offer Ukraine and Georgia a Membership Action Plan, the first step to membership, Scheffer said, “We are debating on this issue.”
“Remarks on this from the Moscow side have happened often,” he told the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. “We treat our Russian partners seriously. … We must engage them in the discussion.”
So as Russia starts Slamming Back, America has no one to blame but themselves…
WtR