[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 54 (Thursday, April 28, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S4538]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          RUSSIA'S G-8 PROBLEM

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, this summer Russia will assume the 
rotating leadership position of the Group of Eight nations for the 
first time. I have expressed my concern repeatedly about the democratic 
deterioration in Russia and I believe that, unless the Russian 
leadership makes significant democratic progress, its continued 
membership in the G-8 should be blocked. Since Senator Lieberman and I 
first expressed this view in a resolution we submitted in 2003, I have 
heard similar sentiments from Senate colleagues and individuals outside 
the Congress. Many observers across the political and ideological 
spectrum are concerned by Russia's retreat from core democratic 
principles.
  President Vladimir Putin recently delivered an address aimed at 
reassuring the world that he takes democracy seriously. And while a 
number of the passages were welcome, others displayed a view of history 
and of Russia's role in the world that is simply astonishing. I would 
like to share with my colleagues today's Washington Post editorial that 
makes this point in detail.
  Moscow's commitment to democracy and the rule of law is a vital 
element of America's relationship with Russia, and with Russia's ties 
to various multilateral institutions. I hope that the Russian 
leadership might see that its national interests lie in cooperation, 
not competition, with democratic countries. I also hope that Russia 
will change many elements of its policy toward smaller neighbors. 
Russia has based Russian troops in Georgia and Moldova without the 
consent of those countries, thereby undermining their sovereignty and 
violating international law.
  If the Kremlin persists in persecuting Mr. Putin's political rivals, 
cracking down on the free media, and intimidating countries along 
Russian borders, I believe that Russian chairmanship of the G-8 is 
entirely inappropriate. Again, I recommend to my colleagues the 
Washington Post editorial I submit for the Record.
  I ask unanimous consent that the editorial be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Washington Post, Apr. 27, 2005]

                          Mr. Putin's Verdict

       What was ``the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 
     century''? The rise of Nazi Germany? The spread of genocide 
     as a tool of state power? Some might say it was the crushing 
     of a host of nations by the totalitarian Soviet Union, at the 
     cost of millions of lives. But not Russian President Vladimir 
     Putin. For him, the greatest catastrophe was not the Soviet 
     Union's rise but its collapse--an event that freed 14 of 
     those nations, from Latvia to Kyrgyzstan, from Moscow's 
     domination. ``The old ideals were destroyed,'' Mr. Putin 
     lamented during his annual state-of-Russia address on Monday.
       Most accounts of Mr. Putin's speech focused on the passages 
     intended for Western consumption: his claim that ``the 
     development of Russia as a free and democratic state'' is now 
     his highest priority; his assurance to Russian and foreign 
     business executives that their investments will not be seized 
     by rapacious authorities, despite the state's recent 
     confiscation of the country's largest oil company; his 
     announced plans to strengthen political parties and make the 
     state-controlled media more independent.
       Yet the former KGB officer's nostalgia for the former 
     Soviet empire seemed as telling as any of his promises. So 
     did his denunciation of the ``disintegration'' of Russia 
     before he came to power, which he defined as the 
     ``capitulation'' of granting autonomy to Chechnya and the 
     ``unrestricted control over information flows'' that allowed 
     private business executives to operate newspapers and 
     television networks. Mr. Putin has reversed both of those 
     liberalizations--in Chechnya's case, by means of an ongoing 
     war that has killed tens of thousands.
       The Russian president has a short-term interest in 
     burnishing what even he must recognize as a tarnished image. 
     Early next month he is due to host numerous world leaders, 
     including President Bush, in a celebration of the Soviet 
     victory in World War II. This summer Mr. Putin is due to take 
     over the rotating leadership of the Group of Eight, a club of 
     industrial democracies in which Russia, an increasingly 
     autocratic state that ranks 97th in the world in per capita 
     gross domestic product, is glaringly out of place.
       As Mr. Putin acknowledged Monday, his strategy for 
     restoring Russian greatness depends heavily on his ability to 
     attract Western capital and to maintain partnerships with the 
     European Union and the United States.
       But Mr. Putin would like to achieve these goals while 
     consolidating the Kremlin's restored diktat and reviving what 
     he called ``the Russian nation's civilizing mission in the 
     Eurasian continent.'' That's why the best measures of Mr. 
     Putin are not speeches but actions. One important test will 
     be his handling of neighbors such as Ukraine, Georgia and 
     Moldova, which have embraced democracy and rejected Mr. 
     Putin's neoimperialism. Will he adjust his approach to those 
     countries, and withdraw unwanted Russian troops from Georgia 
     and Moldova?
       Another comes today at the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, 
     the entrepreneur who built the Yukos oil conglomerate and 
     used it to help finance Russia's liberal democratic 
     opposition. For daring to behave as if Russia were the free 
     and capitalist-friendly country that Mr. Putin describes, Mr. 
     Khodorkovsky was arrested and subjected to a show trial, even 
     as his company, Russia's most modern, was broken up.
       Today he will receive his verdict; prosecutors have 
     requested a prison sentence of 10 years. The outcome ought to 
     tell the Bush administration and other Western governments 
     something important about a leader who would set the agenda 
     for the world's advanced democracies.

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