GOP Finally Confronts Obama’s Russian ‘Reset’ Failure

From Tymoshenko in Kiev to Khodorkovsky in Chita, a new iron curtain has descended across the continent.

Last week, Speaker of the House John Boehner finally confronted President Barack Obama regarding his failed “reset” policy in Russia. He pointed out that despite Obama’s plans and promises, Russia is standing with Iran, not us, in the confrontation over revelations about Iran’s nuclear program. The news came even as the world learned that a Russian scientist had been helping Iran to develop those lethal nukes, and that Russia intended to bestow even more nuclear technology on Ahmadinejad and his fanatical regime.

Though Obama doesn’t seem to notice, Russia’s Iran policy is a declaration of a new cold war, and nobody should be surprised. Two books from seasoned Russia correspondents warned us long ago that this would happen. It’s a cold war that, with nukes in the hands of Ahmadinejad, could get pretty hot, pretty fast.

It remains to be seen whether Boehner and his colleagues in the Senate, who have begun to aggressively raise issues of human rights and democracy, will translate this tough talk into policy action. The first, best thing Boehner and his colleagues can do would be to block the nomination of Michael McFaul as the next ambassador to Russia.

McFaul, as much as anyone, is responsible for the failed conception and execution of the now-infamous Obama “reset” policy, and to reward him with a cushy job in Moscow would be a travesty. McFaul’s dishonesty and duplicity when testifying before Congress in support of his confirmation should make even Obama’s strongest supporters blanch.

Another option would be to block more of the criminals who now populate the Kremlin from stepping through the golden door, as a bipartisan pair of senators have demanded. Or Congress could insist that the administration begin providing real, tangible support to opposition leaders on the ground in Russia: leaders like Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Ryzhkov, Oleg Kozlovsky, and Roman Dobrokhotov.

If you want to know how bad things are behind the new iron curtain that Obama has mightily helped to raise, just listen to Yevgenia Carr, the daughter of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Julia Tymoshenko, begging for her mother’s life. Tymosheko has been railroaded into prison by the new pro-Russia ruler of Ukraine, a proud former KGB spy just like Vladimir Putin. Listening to her, one must question Obama’s patriotism — if not his sanity — in helping legitimize the Putin dictatorship.

The closest students of Russia from the foreign perspective, the editors of the Moscow Times newspaper, have issued a stinging condemnation of Obama’s attempt to cuddle up to Putin’s mafia state. They quote Khodorkovsky, jailed in Siberia’s Chita and writing from the neo-Soviet gulag because he dared to challenge Putin for the presidency:

For more of the horror, read chapter and verse about the mafia state in the eponymous new book by long-serving Russia correspondent Luke Harding. The book’s cover refers to “the brutal new Russia” that Harding saw up close and personal when it banned him from the country — separating him from his wife and child after he dared to report the truth about the Putin crackdown.

Or listen to Nemtsov, another former prime minister facing persecution. Nemtsov used to work directly under Boris Yeltsin. Now his anti-Putin writings are censored and confiscated, he is arrested whenever he seeks to take part in a public demonstration, and he is not allowed to place his name on the ballot for president.

But Obama isn’t interested in reading or listening to anything except poll numbers. Those are looking bleak, so Obama is desperate for any life preserver he can latch onto, and he’s decided to market the “reset” by claiming Russian affection for him shows success. And he doesn’t care how many lies he has to tell, or have told by McFaul on his behalf, to get the job done.

So Putin gets bolder and bolder. A year ago, leading Russian journalist Oleg Kashin was brutally assaulted because of his Kremlin-critical reporting, and lay in a coma. All across Russia, fellow journalists began speculating that Vasily Yakemenko, the leader of Nashi, Russia’s version of the Hitlerjugend, probably gave the order for the attack. Putin’s response? He invited Yakemenko to the Kremlin for a photo op.

Let’s be clear: Russian national interests are served by roiling the waters of the Persian Gulf. Doing so drives up the price of oil and causes billions to flow into the Kremlin’s coffers. What’s more, Russia is ruled by a clan of proud KGB spies who have been taught to hate America from birth. At one time or another, Putin has referred to the U.S. with every epithet in the dictionary. If there is any reset in Russia, it is to redouble efforts to bring the U.S. down.

So Obama is a dream come true for Putin: an American leader who will turn a blind eye to all that in the hopes of misleading American votes just as Putin does in Russia, with dishonest propaganda, smoke, and mirrors.

From the campaign trail, February 2008...

Obama Pledges Cuts in Missile Defense, Space, and Nuclear Weapons Programs

February 29, 2008 :: News
MissileThreat.com

A video has surfaced of Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama talking on his plans for strategic issues such as nuclear weapons and missile defense.

The full text from the video, as released, reads as follows:

Thanks so much for the Caucus4Priorities, for the great work you've been doing. As president, I will end misguided defense policies and stand with Caucus4Priorities in fighting special interests in Washington.

First, I'll stop spending $9 billion a month in Iraq. I'm the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning. And as president I will end it.[not win it -etl]

Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending.

I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.

I will not weaponize space.

I will slow our development of future combat systems.

And I will institute an independent "Defense Priorities Board" to ensure that the Quadrennial Defense Review is not used to justify unnecessary spending.

Third, I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons; I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material; and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert [they are NOT on "hair-trigger alert" now -etl], and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals.

You know where I stand. I've fought for open, ethical and accountable government my entire public life. I don't switch positions or make promises that can't be kept. I don't posture on defense policy and I don't take money from federal lobbyists for powerful defense contractors. As president, my sole priority for defense spending will be protecting the American people. Thanks so much.

Article: Obama Pledges Cuts in Missile Defense, Space, and Nuclear Weapons Programs:
http://missilethreat.com/archives/id.7086/detail.asp

"MissileThreat.com is a project of The Claremont Institute devoted to understanding and promoting the requirements for the strategic defense of the United States."
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"I will not weaponize space"

"I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems"
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2008 Pentagon Report (March 2008):
China's Growing Military Space Power
By Leonard David
Special Correspondent, SPACE.com
March 6, 2008

GOLDEN, Colorado — A just-released Pentagon report spotlights a growing U.S. military concern that China is developing a multi- dimensional program to limit or prevent the use of space-based assets by its potential adversaries during times of crisis or conflict.

Furthermore, last year's successful test by China of a direct-ascent, anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon to destroy its own defunct weather satellite, the report adds, underscores that country's expansion from the land, air, and sea dimensions of the traditional battlefield into the space and cyber-space domains.

Although China's commercial space program has utility for non- military research, that capability demonstrates space launch and control know-how that have direct military application. Even the Chang'e 1 — the Chinese lunar probe now circling the Moon — is flagged in the report as showcasing China's ability "to conduct complicated space maneuvers — a capability which has broad implications for military counterspace operations."

To read the entire publication [29.67MB/pdf], see U.S. Dept of Defense:
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs/China_Military_Report_08.pdf

“We are creating a new world, a balanced world. A new world order, a multipolar world,” Chavez told reporters during a visit to Communist China, one of many. His “new world order” includes [RUSSIA], China, Iran,... and a significantly weakened United States, he explained.

Resurgent Communism in Latin America
by Alex Newman, March 16, 2010:

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/south-america-mainmenu-37/3122-resurgent-communism-in-latin-america?tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page=
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From the Russian News and Information Agency:
July 27, 2006
"'I am determined to expand relations with Russia,' Chavez, known as an outspoken critic of what he calls the United States' unilateralism, told the Russian leader, adding that his determination stemmed from their shared vision of the global order.":
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060727/51913498.html
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From the Sino-Russian Joint Statement of April 23, 1997:
"The two sides [China and Russia] shall, in the spirit of partnership, strive to promote the multipolarization of the world and the establishment of a new international order."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HI29Ag01.html
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"Joint war games are a logical outcome of the Sino-Russian Friendship and Cooperation Treaty signed in 2001, and reflect the shared worldview and growing economic ties between the two Eastern Hemisphere giants."

http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed092605a.cfm
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Photobucket
President Obama and Venezuela dictator Hugo
Chavez at the 2009 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad.
Note the "soul bro" handshake. (my caption)

Obama, Chavez shake hands at Americas Summit:
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/04/17/2698451-obama-chavez-shake-hands-at-americas-summit
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Russia's Medvedev hails "comrade" Obama

Associated Foreign Press (AFP) ^ | April 2, 2009 | Anna Smolchenko

"Russia's Dmitry Medvedev hailed Barack Obama as "my new comrade" Thursday after their first face-to-face talks"

http://www.france24.com/en/20090402-russias-medvedev-hails-comrade-obama

April 1, 2009:
"Obama, Medvedev pledge new era of relations":
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090401/wl_afp/usrussiadiplomacynuclear_20090401152002
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"the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century" -Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the collapse of the Soviet Union...
"World democratic opinion has yet to realize the alarming implications of President Vladimir Putin's State of the Union speech on April 25, 2005, in which he said that the collapse of the Soviet Union represented the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.'
http://www.hooverdigest.org/053/beichman.html

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Russian nuclear bombers in Cuba?
July 23, 2008

The media has been abuzz today at the prospect of Russian nuclear bombers being stationed in Cuba if the US goes ahead with plans for missile defense bases in Eastern Europe.

The story has riled the US enough that a US general has been wheeled out to tell the world’s press that any Russian attempt to build another nuclear base in Cuba would cross US “red line”.

The story broke earlier this week, when Russian newspaper Izvestia quoted an un-named source from within the Russian military. He told the Russian daily:

“While they are deploying the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, our strategic bombers will already be landing in Cuba.”

The quote hasn’t been independently confirmed, but the Russian Defense Ministry added fuel to the fire when they refused to comment on the story.

The prospect of Russian nuclear forces being stationed in Cuba - which is, after all, only 90 miles from the US coast - would bring back some rather unpleasant memories for the US of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, where the Soviet Union under Nikita Kruschev launched an audacious and foolhardy bid to station nuclear missiles on the Caribbean island.

http://www.siberianlight.net/2008/07/23/russian-nuclear-bombers-cuba/
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Russia to help Cuba modernize weaponry, train military

September 18, 2009

HAVANA, September 18 (RIA Novosti) - Modernization of the Soviet-made military equipment and training of Cuban military personnel will be the focus of Russian-Cuban military cooperation in the near future, the chief of the Russian General Staff said on Friday. Gen. Nikolai Makarov arrived on a working visit to Cuba on Monday, met with Cuban President Raul Castro and the country's military leadership, and visited a number of military installations.

"During the Soviet era we delivered a large number of military equipment to Cuba, and after all these years most of this weaponry has become obsolete and needs repairs," Makarov said.

"We inspected the condition of this equipment, and outlined the measures to be taken to maintain the defense capability of this country...I think a lot of work needs to be done in this respect, and I hope we will be able to accomplish this task," the general said.

Makarov said the Cuban request for assistance with training of military personnel will also be fully satisfied.

Although the Cuban leadership has repeatedly said it has no intention of resuming military cooperation with Russia after the surprise closure of the Russian electronic listening post in Lourdes in 2001, bilateral military ties seem to have been improving following the visit of Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin to Cuba in July last year.

A group of Russian warships, led by the Admiral Chabanenko destroyer visited Cuba in December last year during a Caribbean tour.

http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20090918/156170428.html

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Venezuela Set to Develop Nuclear Power With Russia
September 29, 2008
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that Russia will help Venezuela develop nuclear energy — a move likely to raise U.S. concerns over increasingly close cooperation between Caracas and Moscow.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,429441,00.html
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Venezuela's Chavez welcomes Russian warships
Nov 25, 2008
LA GUAIRA, Venezuela – Russian warships arrived off Venezuela's coast Tuesday in a show of strength aimed at the United States as Moscow seeks to expand its influence in Latin America. The deployment is the first of its kind in the Caribbean since the Cold War and was timed to coincide with President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Caracas — the first ever by a Russian president.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%22Venezuela%27s+Chavez+welcomes+Russian+warships%22&ei=UTF-8&fr=moz2

More Yahoo search results for Russia and Venezuela connections:
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geu_X30pZJCJEAfCtXNyoA?p=Russia+Venezuela+bombers+tanks+arms&y=Search&fr=404_news
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From National Public Radio (NPR):
August 29, 2006
"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been visiting countries such as China, Iran and Russia as part of an effort to build a 'strategic alliance' of interests not beholden to the United States. He considers the United States his arch enemy.":
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5729764
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