- Publicly, the United States has condemned the official victory of Viktor F. Yanukovich, the prime minister and the candidate backed by Russia, over the official loser, the Western-leaning Viktor A. Yushchenko. Last week, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell made an unusually tough statement warning of "serious consequences" to the American-Ukrainian relationship if the allegations of fraud were not cleared up. Privately, administration officials have been in regular contact with Russian and Ukrainian officials to push for compromise. On Monday, Mr. Powell spoke to the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, as well as to Mr. Kuchma, and reaffirmed, Mr. Powell said, "that we hope that the Ukrainians would find a legal way forward." Administration officials said the initial tough statement by Mr. Powell, who will soon be succeeded by Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, was followed by the more modulated comments in Texas by Mr. Bush because, by the time the president spoke, the Ukrainians had made some moves toward compromise and Mr. Bush wanted to encourage their progress. But Democrats and other critics of the Bush administration said that the two statements reflected the perplexing situation the administration faced in managing the increasingly difficult relationship with Moscow, and that the president was putting up with too much bad behavior from Mr. Putin.
With the New Cold War back in the headlineshere and here, the Bush Administration is equivocating on what to do about Ukraine. First the wise heavy weight, outgoing Secretary of State Powell, lets Russia and Ukraine know where we stand. Then Bush makes his milk toast statement. I'd bet Rice will step up and make it clear as mud and Putin will think correctly he has Bush hand tied and Russian troops will march into Ukraine to support his buddy.
This president is totally incompetent. Given his performance, we may find ourself in a global war within four years. That oughta make the Christian Right happy, at least until Armageddon arrives with no Rapture.
Complete Article
A Softer Tone From Bush on Ukraine Points to a Quandary for U.S.
November 30, 2004
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 - On the Friday before the disputed
Ukrainian election plunged the former Soviet republic into
political crisis, President Bush asked Senator Richard G.
Lugar to carry a letter to Ukraine's departing president,
Leonid D. Kuchma, threatening consequences should there be
improprieties in the voting.
But just over a week later, after President Vladimir V.
Putin of Russia had declared the results of the election
"absolutely clear" even as international monitors were
reporting widespread fraud and abuse, Mr. Bush took a far
more conciliatory position. Speaking near his ranch in
Texas on Monday, he said he hoped the impasse would be
resolved in a way that brought "credit and confidence" to a
young democratic government that has been independent from
the former Soviet Union for only 13 years.
The differences in tone and approach reflected what
administration officials said was a delicate quandary for
the White House: pushing for self-determination in Ukraine
while trying to preserve America's crucial relationship
with Russia.
Administration officials say they want to avoid a
confrontation with Mr. Putin, but they acknowledge that the
election impasse has brought new tension to a recent strain
between the United States and Russia, and that any
resolution is far from clear.
"We've tried to keep this from being a U.S.-Russia issue,
partly for tactical reasons, because it doesn't help us to
get to a resolution if you introduce that into it," said a
senior administration official who asked not to be
identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. To
treat sympathetic Ukrainians "like a geo-strategic prize of
the cold war would insult them," he added. "They want to
have their own country. It is an issue of who they are, not
a pro-Western or pro-Russian issue."
But the Bush administration, which has long worried that
Russian influence could creep back into the European
countries only recently freed from Communism, has
nonetheless stayed closely involved.
Publicly, the United States has condemned the official
victory of Viktor F. Yanukovich, the prime minister and the
candidate backed by Russia, over the official loser, the
Western-leaning Viktor A. Yushchenko. Last week, Secretary
of State Colin L. Powell made an unusually tough statement
warning of "serious consequences" to the American-Ukrainian
relationship if the allegations of fraud were not cleared
up.
Privately, administration officials have been in regular
contact with Russian and Ukrainian officials to push for
compromise. On Monday, Mr. Powell spoke to the Russian
foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, as well as to Mr.
Kuchma, and reaffirmed, Mr. Powell said, "that we hope that
the Ukrainians would find a legal way forward."
Administration officials said the initial tough statement
by Mr. Powell, who will soon be succeeded by Condoleezza
Rice, the national security adviser, was followed by the
more modulated comments in Texas by Mr. Bush because, by
the time the president spoke, the Ukrainians had made some
moves toward compromise and Mr. Bush wanted to encourage
their progress.
But Democrats and other critics of the Bush administration
said that the two statements reflected the perplexing
situation the administration faced in managing the
increasingly difficult relationship with Moscow, and that
the president was putting up with too much bad behavior
from Mr. Putin.
"The Russians, the Ukrainians and the Europeans all noticed
the difference between the tough, forthright position that
Secretary Powell was taking on his way out the door and the
more modulated, equivocal position that the president
took," said Strobe Talbott, the president of the Brookings
Institution and a Russia specialist who was deputy
secretary of state under President Clinton. "The question
is whether Secretary-designate Rice will pick up on what
Secretary Powell is setting as the tone, or will she
reflect the more disengaged, tolerant tone of the White
House?"
Some administration officials have conceded that they have
growing doubts about Mr. Putin's leadership, and they cite
his crackdown on rebels in Chechnya, his prosecution of
business leaders and his interference in the internal
affairs of Georgia. After the massacre of schoolchildren by
Chechen rebels in September, administration officials were
stunned when Mr. Putin lashed out at the United States for
suggesting that Russia needed to address the Chechens'
political demands.
"Why don't you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels
or to the White House and engage in talks, ask him what he
wants and give it to him so he leaves you in peace?" Mr.
Putin was quoted as telling a group of Western visitors.
Mr. Bush has so far seemed willing to look past such
outbursts because he still needs Mr. Putin, not least in
helping him to press Iran and North Korea to give up their
nuclear weapons programs. Still, Russia specialists say his
involvement in Ukraine in his most serious offense yet in
American eyes.
"The reassertion of Russian influence over Ukraine is the
kind of problem you can't wish away," said Stephen R.
Sestanovich, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign
Relations and the ambassador at large for the former Soviet
Union in the Clinton administration. "It's stopped looking
like a matter of principle and more like a direct challenge
to the independence of other states."
Mr. Sestanovich said that if Mr. Putin backed down, the
administration would avoid a showdown. "We will find it
easier to kiss and make up with Putin if he loses," Mr.
Sestanovich said. "If he wins, we'll have to hold it
against him."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/30/politics/30prexy.html?ex=1102873709&ei=1&en=5ea7192ea2c2fe8a
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