Why I am wrong about Russia.

We need Russia in the G8
John Kirton, National Post
Published: Friday, April 20, 2007

With the approach of the annual G8 summit, this year being held in Germany, some critics are questioning whether Russia belongs in this exclusive democratic club. These include National Post columnist Lorne Gunter, whose column on the subject appeared recently in these pages ("Expel Russia from the G8," April 18). Some claim Russia is returning to totalitarianism and should be shunned until it meets certain democratic standards. Others think it is essential to curb Russia's increasing economic power. Both ideas are deeply flawed.

Those who would remove Russia from the G8 forget that this strategy of exclusion failed at the League of Nations, and thereby helped bring about the horrors of the Holocaust and the Second World War. They also forget that Russia's democratic revolution, unlike the bloody events in the United States in 1776 and France in 1789, was not a revolution from the streets but from the top, with Boris Yeltsin and then Vladimir Putin trying to impose political openness on a bureaucracy and society that had never enjoyed it before. Such a process will take some time to succeed -- a fact that should be understood by those other G8 members with a parliamentary tradition that was built up over many centuries.

Nor would the world be better off with a reprise of the old Cold War. Countries fighting to free democratic Afghanistan from terrorists would not want a rival superpower supplying surface-to-air missiles to the Taliban (in payback for what the West did to invading Soviet armies 25 years ago). Moreover, Russia is by far the best positioned G8 power to talk North Korea and Iran out of their nuclear ambitions, and to put pressure on Tehran regarding its support for Islamist terrorists. It is the only country that can get the Serbs to accept a settlement on Kosovo.

Russia's surging oil revenues have, under Putin's guidance, eliminated the instability that plagued the country in the 1990s, when the old G7 members regarded Russia as a thirdworld country with nuclear arms. Russia's oil wealth has moved it from a consumer to a producer of development assistance, and Moscow is now aiding poor countries in Africa. Russia's refusal thus far to create a natural gas cartel alongside OPEC further helps poor hydrocarbon consumers around the world. And as the G8 member most responsible for bringing the Kyoto Protocol on climate change into life, Russia is central to the outcome of this important global issue.

True, a responsible Russia globally does require an ever more democratic Russia domestically. Yet here, too, Russia's G8 membership has proven its worth. As G8 host in 2006, Russia mounted the most well organized, open, inclusive process for global civil society participation in the G8 since the club was created in 1975. It helped produce a G8 meeting with greater respect for environmental values and social cohesion. It is also worth noting that this same G8 meeting witnessed a frank dialogue among the leaders, initiated by President Putin, about the condition and future of democracy in Russia itself.

This sort of dialogue is far more productive for the world than shouting Cold War slogans through a new Iron Curtain. And that is what we would wind up with if the West kicked the Russians out of the G8 club. - Prof. John Kirton is director of the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto.

© National Post 2007

Why is Russia still in the G-8? Kick them out.

Riot police officers detain Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov

Please explain to me why we continue to pretend that Vladimir Putin is anything other than the retro-communist thug that he is? The only point to giving Russia the status of a normal state was to help make Russia a normal state. That is not happening and it is getting worse. At least the West should remove the prestige that Putin clearly enjoys from the pretense.

Let the Russians be swallowed by the Chinese or make their lot with the Iranians and Venezuelans. It would be good riddance.

European Press Review: The Kremlin Shows Its True Color
Deutche Welle

The crackdown on anti-Kremlin protestors sparked international condemnation

A sign of "weakness" or blatant disregard for international opinion? European newpapers have reacted to the beating and arrest of hundreds of Russian protesters, including opposition politician Garry Kasparov.

French newspaper Le Figaro expressed surprise at the events in Russia in the light of Putin's domestic support."The friends of Kasparov will not gain any popularity because their demonstrations are suppressed. The tough actions of the police will not trigger a wave of protest against those in power. Nevertheless, the Kremlin is showing an astonishing weakness by reacting so rigorously to the smallest sign of protest," muses the paper.

Austrian newspaper Die Presse also wondered why the Kremlin had acted so brutally: "You really ask yourself whether the people in power in Moscow are completely crazy. Apparently, President Putin continues to have the backing of 70 percent and more of the population. What are he and his technocrats afraid of?"

Riot police officers detain Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov
It added later: "If this small heap of civil and human rights campaigners, liberals, national bolchevists and anarchists really frightens the Putinists so much that they deploy a whole army of police against them, then their power base isn't looking rosy (…) In that case, this demonstration of power from the Kremlin has actually revealed its weakness."

Bulgarian newspaper Dnewnik described the beatings and arrests as par for the course. "Really no one should be surprised. It is enough to remember that the Russian President is a former KGB agent and that 90 percent of the leadership in today's Russia are a product of the former secret services."

Swiss newspaper Basler Zeitung argued Putin was attempting to deter what had happened in parts of the former Soviet Union. "From the point of view of the governing regime of President Vladimir Putin this makes perfect sense. (…) The Kremlin has learnt its lesson from the peaceful revolutions in Georgia and the Ukraine where after blatant vote rigging, protest rallies quickly gained momentum and led to the toppling of the respective governments. He wants to keep the protests as small as possible and incite fear among normal citizens."

But the paper also questioned whether this approach would really work. "It may work in the short-term," it wrote. "But in the long-term this was rarely a healthy political strategy."

Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende was damning about Russia's political system. "You have to be completely blind or excessively tolerant not to see that there is something wrong with Russia. Just a year before the elections that mark the end of President Putin's time in office, he has this country so firmly in his grip that democracy is just a shell."

The paper calls upon the international community to do more. "The EU and the US could happily exercise more pressure than is the case at the moment. Putin can carry out his actions largely unhindered".

Finally, German newspaper Die Welt also urged the West not to beat about the bush. The paper says any misguided sense of respect or fear of having Russia energy supplies cut should not stop the international community from taking action. "The West owes it to the dissidents in Putin's empire to speak openly."

DW-World.DE