Kasparov excerpts :
Or both of
Kerry’s views?
Yes! But in Russia
today all of television is under control, the print media is mostly under
state control, and there are very few media outlets that can afford to
criticize Putin and promote out views. So my status can be an important
entry. We’re not fighting for positions of high office, we’re just fighting
to make sure we have campaigns, election, a chance for people to vote for or
against us. We’re at a very early stage of a political fight. It’s about
making sure democracy survives. Then we could consider the next steps.
By technical
standards, Russia right now doesn’t even qualify to join the European Union,
let alone the G7. I thought that stood for the seven great industrial
democracies, but I don’t know in which part of that definition Russia fits
into right now. “Great” you can argue, but as for “industrial” and
“democracy,” it just doesn’t qualify. No free elections, no independent
judiciary, no free media.
Some people say, and
we know their names, Berlusconi, Blair, Chirac, Schroeder, to a lesser
extent Bush, who at least has said a few things, they say that this is a
special kind of “Russian democracy.” They didn’t buy this story from other
people, from Pinochet, for instance. The West won the Cold War because of a
strong moral stand. It stood on the pillars that guarantee its moral
superiority. Today, it’s nice to talk about democracy in Iraq, but not at
the expense of democracy in Russia. Making the world safe for democracy
should have universal standards and application. If it’s split into regions,
fighting for democracy here, but over here no, that’s not going to work.
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Hangin's take:
Well there is not much the west can do about internal Russian
issues. The west has not barred Russia from the G-7 because the west
needs Russia help on certain issue, such as North Korea, Iran, Iraq, and
world wide terror just to name a few. The key to successful diplomacy is to
recognize the things you can change and those that can't be changed. It is
far too dangerous for the west to take on Russian internal issues. However
with Russia's help, we might be able to stop North Korea and Iran from
getting nuclear weapons.
We won the cold war because we never let it become a hot war.
The United States and its allies never directly engaged the Soviet Union.
The US did challenge Soviet influence around the world, but we did not
involve ourselves in their internal affairs. If the west was to take a hard
stand on Russia, that would only drive them closer to China, North Korea and
Iran. It might also force the Russian leaders to embrace world wide terror.
Getting democracy in Iraq will be far more simpler with Russia's
help than getting true democracy in Russia. Only the Russian people
can get true democracy in Russia. Now the west can help things along through
economic policies. The west can use a big stick on Russia, but only a stick
with a carrot on the end of it. The west certainly can't force democracy in
China.
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