#2 - RW 11-12-04 - RW Home
Moscow News
www.mn.ru
November 10-16, 2004
Two Like-minded Presidents
By Boris Yunanov

Several hours before John Kerry announced his defeat in the presidential race, Russian President Vladimir Putin made an unexpected statement at a Moscow press conference: "A dialogue with the United States, whoever is elected president, will not be easy." Putin was obviously being artful. In fact, he finds it quite easy to talk with the victorious George W. Bush. I will even risk presuming that the two men understand each other perfectly well.

Bush noted during his first meeting with Putin that he (Bush) "was able to get a sense of his soul." Bush the Evangelist must have regarded Putin as also religious. But what did the former KGB lieutenant colonel see in Bush's inner world? At least a like-minded person. Ever since then, the two presidents have been firm and consistent in preaching a common dictum: "Anyone who is not with us is with the terrorists."

Even though Putin follows this dictum mostly in domestic policy while Bush does so in foreign policy, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find any important difference in ideological and political approaches between the Kremlin and the White House.

The West complains about the Kremlin's secretiveness. But what is the main trademark of the Bush administration? The New York Times recently wrote that it was concealment and camouflage.

When the West writes about the Russian parliament's obedience to Putin, my mind's eye sees a U.S. Congress that has lost its ability to debate, while applauding Bush is its main occupation. It is a lackluster shadow of the former Congress.

You gentlemen are surprised that Putin unscrupulously appoints members of his entourage to the management bodies of key Russian companies, aren't you? But isn't it obvious that the present U.S. administration also consists of lobbyists of their own businesses?

You assert that the Russian Orthodox Church has recently received too many privileges and too much influence. Let us recall how many billion dollars in budgetary money Bush has spent on support for Evangelist associations.

You say Putin encourages Russian nationalism. To what extent is Bush a cosmopolitan? What other American president pursued such a nationalist policy?

Finally, Bush is certain that democracy will triumph in Iraq, while Putin is convinced that Chechnya will become stable again. Both ignore obvious facts and trends.

Sometimes it even seems that the Kremlin's occupants are simply imitating their American counterparts. Shortly before his arrest, former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky had attended a business conference in the US. President Putin, hinting at Khodorkovsky's funding of the political opposition, conveyed these words to him through intermediaries: "Let him speak with Bill Gates, who nearly lost his fortune after backing the Democrats in the elections..."

An American president who is the most unpopular in the world happens to be the most concordant with Russian political traditions. The American neoconservatives are close in spirit to their Russian counterparts. The pro-Kremlin party United Russia was quick to congratulate the U.S. Republican Party with victory on November 2. The Russian ruling elite is happy with the Republican electoral victory in America.

Behind this enthusiasm there are also pragmatic reasons. What are they?

For Russia, George W. Bush signifies high oil prices, which allows Russia to repay its foreign debt, increase its foreign-exchange reserves, and take its time with structural economic reforms.

Bush is "an arc of crisis" (an old phrase from Zbigniew Brzezinski) across the whole of the oil-rich Middle East, as a result of which Russia is becoming even more influential as a key supplier of oil and gas to Europe and China.

George W. Bush is responsible for America's practically frozen political contacts with "old Europe." Consequently, Moscow is getting extra space for diplomatic maneuver in Europe, and it is capitalizing on this advantage.

Bush lets Russia have a free hand in Chechnya. Human rights have all but disappeared from the agenda in Russian-American talks. The Kremlin never dreamed of a more convenient background for pursuing a rigid domestic policy. Putin will never have any problems with such an America. The question is: Will this make life easier for his fellow citizens?