Ukraine exemplifies Putin's fear

Times Union ^ | 12 06 2004 | William Safire

[Cutterjohnmhb]

The elder President Bush's most memorable foreign-policy blunder took place in Kiev in 1991, then under Communist rule. With the Soviet Union coming apart, the U.S. president -- badly advised by the stability-obsessed "realist" Brent Scowcroft -- made a speech urging Ukrainians yearning for independence to beware of "suicidal nationalism." His speech, which he now insists meant only "not so fast," was widely taken as advice to remain loyal to Moscow's empire.

I dubbed this the "Chicken Kiev speech." That so infuriated Bush, who mistakenly saw the phrase as imputing cowardice rather than charging colossal misjudgment, that he has not spoken to me since.

Contrariwise, the reaction of President Vladimir Putin of Russia to the latest manifestation of the desire of the majority of the Ukrainian people for independence from Moscow is that of a dictator gripped by fear.

Putin's "Chicken Kiev" moment came when his plan to put in a Ukrainian puppet backfired. He put the Putin system of a phony election, so successful in Russia, in place: central control of major media, lavish government spending on its candidate, harassment of the opposition and, most of all, overt embrace by the powers that be in Moscow.

[Cutterjohnmhb]

Whoops, my bad on the repost, of an article under a different title. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1295579/posts