Barack Obama: Vladimir Putin is 'living in the past'

Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | July 3, 2009 | Alex Spillius

[Schnucki]

Barack Obama yesterday accused Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, of "living in the past" and indulging in Cold War thinking on the eve of his first trip to Russia as US president.

Mr Obama described the former president, who remains the country's dominant political force, as someone who still has "one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new".

He said one reason he will meet Mr Putin, as well as Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, during his visit next week is that he wanted Mr Putin to know that "the old Cold War approaches" to relations with the United States were "outdated".

The US president told the Associated Press that he was developing a "very good relationship" with Mr Medvedev, whom he met in London at the G20 summit in April.

At the time, the two leaders readily agreed to move quickly to hammer out an accord for shrinking their countries' nuclear arsenals, a pact that would replace the 1991 Start I treaty that expires in December.

Both sides have been tight-lipped about preparatory talks, but negotiators are expected to narrow differences enough to allow the leaders to possibly announce a framework for a deal next week.

However, also at stake is the credibility of the Obama administration's pledge to "press the reset button" on US-Russia relations, which sank to a post-Cold War low under George W Bush and Mr Putin.

Mr Obama's forthright remarks were a strong signal that he expects Moscow to match his commitment to improving the tone in the two sides' conversation.

Michael McFaul, a senior director for Russian and Eurasian affairs at the White House, said that the Russian elite too commonly thought of the US as an "adversary".

"I'm sure many would use harsher words among

[Pining_4_TX]

Shoot, I wish Putin were our president. At least he knows what he is doing.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

Not to mention a few other world leaders are afraid of provoking him.

[denydenydeny]

Look, I have no use for Putin, but....what the hell kind of diplomacy is this?

Teleprompter must have been on the blink.

[KoRn]

.... And he’s really good with the press. :p

[Frantzie]

At least Putin is a nationalist and pro-Russian people. Putin has many many problems but light years smarter and better than Obama.

[Nachum]

The list, ping

[Walrus]

Putin is going to eat Obama’s (blessings be upon him) lunch.

[OB1kNOb]

Putin and Medvedev are laughing their ruskie arses off at us for electing this clown.

[huckfillary]

Putin’s living in the past? Talk about a lot of balls. What is this guy smoking? Marxism has been thoroughly discredited by history, but this guy embraces it like a newborn baby. If anyone hasn’t been convinced up till now, this should surely push any doubters over the edge-—the guy is f*****g crazy.

[4rcane]

Putin and Bush has great personal relationship I thought.

[KoRn]

"Look, I have no use for Putin, but....what the hell kind of diplomacy is this?"

This is true. Typically a president doesn't personally insult a leader when he's getting ready to travel to their country to meet with them. lol

[Chi-townChief]

What’s that old pot and kettle story??

[hinckley buzzard]

This guy strews the intenational scene with insults like they were rose petals. Soon no one will want even to work with the US except for tin-horn leftwing dictators and turd world muckymucks.

[4rcane]

Putin also understand capitalism better and alot more anti-socialism than obama

[Retired Chemist]

Isn’t Obama living in the past with his Carter style foreign policy?

[don-o]

Littlest. President. Ever.

I am reminded of when Nikita Khrushchev sized up JFK (wrongly, it turned out) and installed missles in Cuba.

Our Wee President is genuinely lacking in so many areas, that I fear Vlad is going to be tempted to try something as well.

[ETL]

Shoot, I wish Putin were our president. At least he knows what he is doing.

What the hell is it with all this Putin admiration on FR?

[mojito]

Putin laughs at 0bambi.

Putin has six 0bambi burgers before lunch, for a snack.

[TCats]

And Obama appears to be living in Fabtasyland/Neverland. The same motivation of the past is present and Putin smells the unwillingness of this (And our past President) to make some hard choices when it comes to Russia or a number of other threats that are still around despite ‘being in the past’.

[paulycy]

Putin living in the past?

This from the guy who’s been told by both Russia and China to stop trying to be a socialist because it doesn’t work. Marxist superstitions have failed.

Talk about living in the past.

[Pinetop]

This just proves what a narcissistic fool we have elected. Russia and China are separately preparing for war against the U.S. The cyber attacks are unrelenting and they are in parabellum mode.

[ETL]

http://article.wn.com/view/2009/06/16/Iran_president_visits_Russia_despite_protests/
______________________________________________________

From CBS-News, July 29, 2006:

Chavez Vows To 'Stand By Iran'
After Oil Talks In Tehran, Venezuelan Leader Called 'Brother' By Ahmedinejad

"Chavez pledged that his country would 'stay by Iran at any time and under any condition,' state television reported. Ahmadinejad said he saw in Chavez a kindred spirit." "'We do not have any limitation in cooperation,' Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying. 'Iran and Venezuela are next to each other and supporters of each other. Chavez is a source of a progressive and revolutionary current in South America and his stance in restricting imperialism is tangible.'":
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/29/world/main1847331.shtml
______________________________________________________

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
______________________________________________________

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
______________________________________________________

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
______________________________________________________

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
______________________________________________________

President Obama and Venezuela dictator Hugo
Chavez at the 2009 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad

Obama, Chavez shake hands at Americas Summit:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D97KK2T00&show_article=1
______________________________________________________

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

http://article.wn.com/view/2009/06/16/Iran_president_visits_Russia_despite_protests/
______________________________________________________

From CBS-News, July 29, 2006:

Chavez Vows To 'Stand By Iran'
After Oil Talks In Tehran, Venezuelan Leader Called 'Brother' By Ahmedinejad

"Chavez pledged that his country would 'stay by Iran at any time and under any condition,' state television reported. Ahmadinejad said he saw in Chavez a kindred spirit." "'We do not have any limitation in cooperation,' Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying. 'Iran and Venezuela are next to each other and supporters of each other. Chavez is a source of a progressive and revolutionary current in South America and his stance in restricting imperialism is tangible.'":
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/29/world/main1847331.shtml
______________________________________________________

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
______________________________________________________

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
______________________________________________________

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
______________________________________________________

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
______________________________________________________

President Obama and Venezuela dictator Hugo
Chavez at the 2009 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad

Obama, Chavez shake hands at Americas Summit:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D97KK2T00&show_article=1
______________________________________________________

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

[ETL]

Symposium: To Kill a Russian Journalist
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 17, 2006

The murder of internationally renowned Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in early October 2006 was yet another troubling sign of Russia’s retreat into its totalitarian past. Today Frontpage Symposium has gathered a distinguished panel of experts to discuss why Anna Politkovskaya was killed and what the tragic loss of her life symbolizes about the direction in which Vladimir Putin’s Russia is heading.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=BDBFAEF5-5295-400F-807B-83D20FFA285C
_______________________________________________________

'PUTIN'S RUSSIA' by Anna Politkovskaya:
http://www.annapolitkovskaya.com/
_______________________________________________________

Col. Alexander Litvinenko
4 Dec 1962 - 23 Nov 2006

"You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed. You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilised value."

Obituary: Alexander Litvinenko
Times of London, 25 November 2006

On April 23, 2002, Alexander Litvinenko, a former officer of the Russian secret service, arrived at Heathrow, supposedly on a stopover before flying on to the Caribbean. Claiming that he was being persecuted by the Russian authorities, he sought political asylum.

Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was born in 1962 in Voronezh, south of Moscow. After high school and extended service in the Soviet Army (in which his grandfather was an officer), he graduated from the Interior Forces Military Academy, joining the KGB in 1988.

While his early career was in espionage, by 1991 he had made a name for himself in the organised crime and anti-terror divisions. He also worked in the central apparatus, leading co-operation between the KGB, by then renamed the FSB, and the Moscow organised crime police squad. In 1997 he joined one of the FSB’s most secret departments, specialising in the pursuit of criminal organisations, and became its deputy head.

This exemplary career came to an abrupt end on November 18, 1998, when, in a press conference, he accused his FSB superiors of extortion, corruption and illegal assassinations. The accusations were detailed and seemed credible. He was suspended and in March 1999 arrested and held in isolation in the infamous KGB Lefortovo prison.

He was tried and acquitted in November 1999, but immediately rearrested. In 2000 charges were dropped after he promised to stay in Moscow. He and his family lived under intense surveillance and when they heard that further charges were being prepared, they fled. They flew to Turkey and from there to London.

Tried in absentia and sentenced to nine years in prison, Litvinenko found work in Britain as a postman, while his wife taught ballroom dancing. He continued his campaign against his former employers in interviews and books, and contributed anti-Russian material to a Chechen website. At the time of his death he was investigating the murder of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

He is survived by his wife Marina and his two children.

Alexander Litvinenko, former officer of the Russian secret service, was born on December 4, 1962. He died on November 23, 2006, aged 43

http://www.cicentre.com/Documents/litvinenko.html
_______________________________________________________

Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian security agent fighting for his life in a UK hospital after allegedly being poisoned, has been a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin since before he became president in 2000.

Mr Litvinenko is thought to have been close to journalist Anna Politkovskaya, another opponent of the Kremlin who was shot dead last month, and said recently he was investigating her murder. It was after being handed documents apparently relating to the case that he was taken ill more than two weeks ago.

But he is perhaps best known for a book in which he alleges that agents co-ordinated the 1999 apartment block bombings in Russia that killed more than 300 people. He now appears to have fallen victim to the kind of plots which he wrote about.

Arrest

Mr Litvinenko, 43, first became a security agent under the Soviet-era KGB, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in its later incarnations.

He is reported to have fallen out with Vladimir Putin, then head of the security service, in the late 1990s, after failing in attempts to crack down on corruption within the organisation. In 1998, he first came to prominence by exposing an alleged plot to assassinate the then powerful tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who himself now lives in self-imposed exile in the UK. He was subsequently arrested on charges of abusing his office and spent nine months in a remand centre before being acquitted.

In 1999 he wrote Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within, in which he accused the current Russian security service, the FSB, of carrying out several apartment house bombings in 1999 that killed more than 300 people. The attacks, which Moscow blamed on Chechen rebels, helped swing public opinion behind Russia's second war in the breakaway republic.

Petrol bombs

Complaining of persecution, in 2000 Mr Litvinenko fled to the UK where he sought, and was granted, asylum. But after settling in an unnamed London suburb, the former spy continued to behave as if on the run, constantly changing his contact details. The Times newspaper reported that over the summer someone tried to push a pram loaded with petrol bombs at his front door. Appearing alongside high-profile opponents of President Putin, he has continued to make allegations about his former bosses. Perhaps most notably, he alleged that al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri was trained by the FSB in Dagestan in the years before 9/11.

http://www.cicentre.com/Documents/litvinenko.html

[A_Former_Democrat]

So he’s also a fan of Jethro Tull and has its songs on his iPod?

[stephenjohnbanker]

LOL!!

[MGMSwordsman]

Vladimir will turn Lord Zero into his personal bitch. I wish Vlad were our President and not this blue-lipped freak.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“Yes we can” said Mister Rogers.

[altura]

Putin will squash him like a bug.

[Navy Patriot]

What you want to bet Putin will have Zero strip searched at Russian customs?

[Think free or die]

Unfortunately he can’t squash Zero like a bug without hurting the rest of us.

[Gator113]

I’ll back Putin, somebody else can babysit that White Hating Magic Negro.

Putin will either play with Obama, such as a large cat does with a dying mouse, or he will simply eat his heart while it’s still beating.

Putin doesn’t respect cowards and the world has already seen Obama for the loon that he really is.

[Blue Highway]

Yeah Obama is kissing the ring of the Axil of Evil and the strained sort of ally Russia he is calling Putin outdated. Way to piss off the people we are trying to win over... So much for all of Bush’s work cozying up to Putin. One day with Obama and I bet Putin starts cranking up the rhetoric.

[stboz]

How in hell is Putin going to keep from falling down laughing?

[DoughtyOne]

Obambi is the red dot in the middle of the bulls eye, and Putin, Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Zalaya and Moon are running circles around him.



The following is directed to all Freepers in general.



Some Freepers see everything through a red, white, and blue filter.  Lets prove right now how many of us do.  5% of the Freepathon total has been reached.

Do the deed.  Click those smiling faces right now.  Spread the word...




Please vist the Freepathon thread and ham it up with folks over there.  Posting on the thread gets it more attention, and we can end this Freepathon sooner.

[Navy Patriot]

Putin and Bush has great personal relationship I thought.

Nah, BUSH thought they had a great personal relationship.

Putin has a great personal relationship with the European energy market.

[LucyT]

Barack Obama yesterday accused Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, of "living in the past" and indulging in Cold War thinking on the eve of his first trip to Russia as US president.

Check out ETL's great posts, too.

[taxtruth]

This thread will be good.

[TalBlack]

....what the hell kind of diplomacy is this?

The Boy President doubtless has confused running off at the mouth with being “tough”. A common mistake among the immature as well as the cowardly.

[King Moonracer]

Hey Zero, if you are going to start a war, fight a real enemy first. Oh wait, you’re one of them.

[flash2368]

“What the hell is it with all this Putin admiration on FR?”

Well he is about 10 times better than Odumba on a bad day.
Putin, unlike O, is looking out for the best interests of his country. O is trying to flush the U.S. down the toilet.

The U.S. is a big joke in Russia.. they call it “New Africa”

[Crawdad]

One foot in the present, and one foot up our president’s rear end.

[omega4179]

0 does not understand that many Easterners look at the cold war as a better era that had more order and made more sense than the 21st century.

[omega4179]

0 offers 1930’s foreign policy with late 60’s domestic policy and its Putin living in the past? somebody must be still smoking dope in DC.

[paulycy]

This thread will be good.

[El Gato]

the Russian elite too commonly thought of the US as an "adversary".

The Russian elite think of everyone who is not Russian as "an adversary", as well as many who are Russian.

Paranoia goes way back with the Rus (a name borrowed from the Finns to designate the Swedes) branch of the Viking culture. Probably something to do with having gone inland.

Rurik, first Rus ruler of the slavs.

[Gaffer]

Barack Obama is living in the past. He thinks and acts like he is in 1917 Russia.

[Political Junkie Too]

Are they going to have a shirtless pects contest? Is that why Hillary was dismissed from the trip?

-PJ

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Barack Obama yesterday accused Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, of "living in the past" and indulging in Cold War thinking on the eve of his first trip to Russia as US president.

This would be less hilarious if Obama weren't the one trying to resurrect nuclear arms reduction negotiations as if it were 1975 and the Soviet Union still existed.

In all of his foreign policy approaches so far - toward China, India, Central America, Israel, the Arab world and Iran - Obama shows the insight and mindset of a State Department bureaucrat from the '70s. He honestly seems to believe that nuclear arms treaties with Russia are a priority, he refuses to say a word to further the cause of democracy if it will upset some tyrant he wants to invite to a summit. He could have been an acolyte of Henry Kissinger.

[El Gato]

What is this guy smoking?