Rice vs. Putin
Condoleezza Rice is in Russia and is apparently giving Putin the full-court press on democracy.
Rice cut her teeth in foreign affairs by working on Russian policy. She was highly critical of the cozy relationship with Yeltsin, thinking that the U.S. had too much invested in the person of Yeltsin, who was a drunk and boor. The Rise of the Vulcans relates how the first face-to-face exchange between Rice and Yeltsin was about as frosty as a Siberian Dairy Queen.
One criticism that has was leveled at Rice while she was National Security Adviser was that she was too soft on Yeltsin's successor, Putin, because her boss, Bush, had struck up what he thought was a pretty good rapport with the guy. After meeting Putin for the first time, Bush said something like, "I looked into his soul and took a measure of the man".
Now I wonder if Rice has turned Bush's thinking around, or if he's had second thoughts himself and is giving her more slack to press Putin on democracy and rule of law.
Rice cut her teeth in foreign affairs by working on Russian policy. She was highly critical of the cozy relationship with Yeltsin, thinking that the U.S. had too much invested in the person of Yeltsin, who was a drunk and boor. The Rise of the Vulcans relates how the first face-to-face exchange between Rice and Yeltsin was about as frosty as a Siberian Dairy Queen.
One criticism that has was leveled at Rice while she was National Security Adviser was that she was too soft on Yeltsin's successor, Putin, because her boss, Bush, had struck up what he thought was a pretty good rapport with the guy. After meeting Putin for the first time, Bush said something like, "I looked into his soul and took a measure of the man".
Now I wonder if Rice has turned Bush's thinking around, or if he's had second thoughts himself and is giving her more slack to press Putin on democracy and rule of law.
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