Russian Media: Cheney's Fighting Words Mark Beginning of Second Cold War

Mr. Cheney is such a diplomatic man of peace, isn't he? ::arf::

From the wires:

Russian media on Friday described Vice President Dick Cheney's harsh criticism of Russia and President Vladimir Putin as the start of a new Cold War.

Cheney's words Thursday at a conference in Lithuania drew a comparison to Winston Churchill's famed "Iron Curtain" speech and reflected the deepening distrust between Washington and a newly assertive Kremlin.

The official Russian response to Cheney's speech has been cautious. But angry reaction from politicians and pundits allied with the Kremlin reflects a chill between two presidents who seemed to hit it off early in their relationship.

In his speech, Cheney accused Russia of cracking down on religious and political rights and of using its energy reserves as "tools of intimidation or blackmail."

Opponents of reform in Russia, the vice president said, "are seeking to reverse the gains of the last decade" after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet empire.

There was no public reaction from Putin or the government.

But the prominent business daily Kommersant said Cheney's comments marked "the beginning of a second Cold War" and harked back to Churchill's speech condemning Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe with the "Iron Curtain" label that defined the East-West divide for decades.

OK, let's put this in perspective.

First, no argument that Russia has been going backwards under Putin. But probably nowhere near as fast or far or furiously as the U.S. has backed away from civil liberties, democracy, and fair elections.

Second, with the War on Terror increasingly seen as a bust, the same people who have been screaming for years that the end of the Cold War ruined all "the really great things in life" like obscene profits and power for the military industrial complex, dirty politicking, and subterfuge are now truly hoping for a return to the days when the U.S. and Russia were dire enemies. The fact that Russia is no longer a super power and the U.S. is fast losing its remaining status as a super power isn't something these fools bother to factor in.

Third, the Financial Times is calling Cheney's tough talk a "serious gamble". From today's FT:

Vice President Dick Cheney’s accusation on Thursday that Russia was using its energy resources as “blackmail” marked the first public salvo by the US in what could be a very fraught run-up to the G8 summit in St Petersburg in July, diplomats in Washington said.

Clearly US-Russian relations are under strain, but analysts differ over just how badly ties have deteriorated since President George W. Bush said famously in 2001 that he had looked into the eyes of Vladimir Putin and “got a sense of his soul”.

There is also debate whether Mr Cheney, a veteran hardliner of the cold war with the Soviet Union, is pushing for a tougher policy on Russia than Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state and a specialist of the Soviet era.

“Putin is no longer regarded by the Bush administration as a reliable partner,” a European diplomat commented. He and analysts involved in briefing the vice president’s office described Mr Cheney as “furious” with the Russian president over what the US sees as serious backsliding in democracy, its use of energy as a foreign policy weapon and its recent refusal to halt the sale to Iran of an air defence system.