Bush walking fine line with trip to ex-Soviet republics
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-04-bush-russia-trip_x.htm
By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — On its surface, President Bush's trip to Europe looks like a simple visit to help his friend, Russian President Vladimir Putin, celebrate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
Putin is likely to be pleased by Bush's Russian visit, but displeased when the president visits former Soviet republics.
In reality, though, the trip is also a carefully choreographed diplomatic mission that will demonstrate U.S. concern about a Russian retreat from democratic principles, while signaling support for U.S. allies who were once dominated by the former Soviet Union.
The "Great Patriotic War," as World War II is known in Russia, cost 27 million Russian lives, and its end is widely celebrated in Russia. But it also heralded the consolidation of Stalinism, the birth of the Soviet empire and the start of the Cold War. Baltic states were swept into the Soviet Union, where they would stay until the Soviet collapse in 1991.
"Bush has a problem," says Radek Sikorski, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. "He wants to do Putin a favor, but he doesn't want to come across as supporting neo-Stalinism."
Provocative visits
Bush arrives Friday in the Latvian capital, Riga, where he will meet with leaders of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania on Saturday. All three countries were subsumed into the Soviet Union at the end of World War II, and the leaders of all three have publicly disputed Putin's contention last week that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a "major geopolitical disaster."
The presidents of Estonia and Lithuania have declined the Russian invitation to the celebration in Moscow. Latvia's prime minister will attend but will use the trip to talk about the Soviet "occupation."
On each leg of the trip, Bush will participate in meetings intended to demonstrate his support for independence and sovereignty in the states of the former Soviet Union, countries that Russia still feels are in its sphere of influence.
In Latvia, Bush will visit the Freedom Monument, which symbolizes Latvia's independence.
In Georgia on Tuesday, he will speak in Freedom Square in Tbilisi, the original flashpoint of the democratic movement that began in Georgia and later spread to Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
In each country and in Moscow, Bush will hold roundtable discussions with human rights and democracy activists.
"If you look at all the trips together," said national security adviser Stephen Hadley in a briefing Wednesday, "I think it will be an opportunity for the president to celebrate freedom" and to "make clear that ... sovereignty needs to be respected."
Irritating the Russians
Bush's itinerary has caused consternation among Russian officials.
"How can an ordinary Russian imagine this partnership we are trying to create with the United States" when Bush is making Moscow uncomfortable with visits to surrounding countries, asks Alexander Lukashevich, senior counselor at the Russian Embassy in Washington. Lukashevich says Latvians have discriminated against Russian-speaking Latvians, which makes Bush's trip there objectionable. "What provoked that decision I don't know."
A complicated relationship has evolved between the United States and Russia. The two countries fought as allies during World War II and were rivals during the Cold War. They drew closer after the breakup of the Soviet Union and during their common fight against terrorism after the 9/11 attacks.
The two nations need much from each other. The United States needs Russia's oil, its help in the war on terror and its support in curbing nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea. And Russia needs U.S. backing in its quest to become a full member of the Group of Eight industrialized nations and of the World Trade Organization.
Yet, lately the relationship has been tested. Putin proposed measures to eliminate direct elections of parliamentary candidates and empower him to appoint regional governors. And the Russian government has eliminated Russia's independent broadcast media, according to Human Rights Watch.
And Putin and Bush don't see eye-to-eye on changes in the region. Putin last week offered a warm reception to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, just days after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice branded Lukashenko Europe's last dictator. And in March, the Russian president complained that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitors security and human rights, is encroaching in its former sphere of influence by encouraging democracy in Ukraine, Georgia and elsewhere.
"There's increasing concern in the United States about Russia putting pressure on its smaller neighbors," particularly Latvia and Georgia, says Fiona Hill, a Russia scholar at the Brookings Institution, a think tank. Bush's visit "is definitely a signal to the Russians (to)'back off.' "
Putin is likely to be pleased by Bush's Russian visit, but displeased when the president visits former Soviet republics.
In reality, though, the trip is also a carefully choreographed diplomatic mission that will demonstrate U.S. concern about a Russian retreat from democratic principles, while signaling support for U.S. allies who were once dominated by the former Soviet Union.
The "Great Patriotic War," as World War II is known in Russia, cost 27 million Russian lives, and its end is widely celebrated in Russia. But it also heralded the consolidation of Stalinism, the birth of the Soviet empire and the start of the Cold War. Baltic states were swept into the Soviet Union, where they would stay until the Soviet collapse in 1991.
"Bush has a problem," says Radek Sikorski, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. "He wants to do Putin a favor, but he doesn't want to come across as supporting neo-Stalinism."
Provocative visits
Bush arrives Friday in the Latvian capital, Riga, where he will meet with leaders of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania on Saturday. All three countries were subsumed into the Soviet Union at the end of World War II, and the leaders of all three have publicly disputed Putin's contention last week that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a "major geopolitical disaster."
The presidents of Estonia and Lithuania have declined the Russian invitation to the celebration in Moscow. Latvia's prime minister will attend but will use the trip to talk about the Soviet "occupation."
On each leg of the trip, Bush will participate in meetings intended to demonstrate his support for independence and sovereignty in the states of the former Soviet Union, countries that Russia still feels are in its sphere of influence.
In Latvia, Bush will visit the Freedom Monument, which symbolizes Latvia's independence.
In Georgia on Tuesday, he will speak in Freedom Square in Tbilisi, the original flashpoint of the democratic movement that began in Georgia and later spread to Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
In each country and in Moscow, Bush will hold roundtable discussions with human rights and democracy activists.
"If you look at all the trips together," said national security adviser Stephen Hadley in a briefing Wednesday, "I think it will be an opportunity for the president to celebrate freedom" and to "make clear that ... sovereignty needs to be respected."
Irritating the Russians
Bush's itinerary has caused consternation among Russian officials.
"How can an ordinary Russian imagine this partnership we are trying to create with the United States" when Bush is making Moscow uncomfortable with visits to surrounding countries, asks Alexander Lukashevich, senior counselor at the Russian Embassy in Washington. Lukashevich says Latvians have discriminated against Russian-speaking Latvians, which makes Bush's trip there objectionable. "What provoked that decision I don't know."
A complicated relationship has evolved between the United States and Russia. The two countries fought as allies during World War II and were rivals during the Cold War. They drew closer after the breakup of the Soviet Union and during their common fight against terrorism after the 9/11 attacks.
The two nations need much from each other. The United States needs Russia's oil, its help in the war on terror and its support in curbing nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea. And Russia needs U.S. backing in its quest to become a full member of the Group of Eight industrialized nations and of the World Trade Organization.
Yet, lately the relationship has been tested. Putin proposed measures to eliminate direct elections of parliamentary candidates and empower him to appoint regional governors. And the Russian government has eliminated Russia's independent broadcast media, according to Human Rights Watch.
And Putin and Bush don't see eye-to-eye on changes in the region. Putin last week offered a warm reception to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, just days after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice branded Lukashenko Europe's last dictator. And in March, the Russian president complained that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitors security and human rights, is encroaching in its former sphere of influence by encouraging democracy in Ukraine, Georgia and elsewhere.
"There's increasing concern in the United States about Russia putting pressure on its smaller neighbors," particularly Latvia and Georgia, says Fiona Hill, a Russia scholar at the Brookings Institution, a think tank. Bush's visit "is definitely a signal to the Russians (to)'back off.' "
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