This Monday US Secretary of State for Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice visited Moscow. They held negotiations with the current President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President-elect Dmitry Medvedev.

But the main negotiations are planned to be held on Tuesday, when the American guests will meet their colleagues – Anatoly Serdyukov (Minister of Defence) and Sergey Lavrov (Minister of Exterior). Their dialogue will be held in the same “two plus two” format as before.

On the eve of this meeting in Moscow Washgton made very careful predictions about its outcome. Before these negotiations US Minister of Defence Robert Gates shuffled all responsibility for the meeting’s success onto the Russian side:

“Russia needs to decide if it wants to be a real partner or not. From my point of view, we put a lot of things on the negotiating table. And now it’s high time for Russia to answer.”

Gates made it clear that no more new offers about anti-missile defence would be suggested to Moscow. Russian Vice-minister of Defence Alexander Grushko confirmed this, saying that:

“The negotiation process has not been finished yet. With any result, Russia will find reliable ways of providing its security. But our choice is to prefer cooperation and not confrontation”.

US anti-missile system placement: is there any hope for Russia?

Experts say that Tuesday’s negotiations will be devoted to the most pressing problem of Russia-US relations- the placement of US anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe countries – specifically, the Czech Republic and Poland.

Negotiations, which have been taking place between Russia and the US since February are close to their finish. And that is why we can conclude that placement of anti-missile elements in Eastern Europe is no longer a question of discussion. The only hope for Russia in the diplomatic meetings is to agree some acceptable conditions for all sides.

The last “two plus two” meeting took place last year in October. Then, according to, experts, some progress was made – in particular, some representatives of the US administration mentioned the possibility of Russian military inspections of anti-missile systems in Poland and Czech Republic.
Also it was suggested some tactical decisions, for example, not to direct radar in Czech Republic at Russia and not to place missiles in Polish mines. Moscow approved these initiatives, but in the protocol of negotiations these agreements were not fully resolved.

Anonymous sources in the Russian Ministry of Defence expressed regret that the Americans haven’t brought any new suggestions about the problem. According to the opinion of militaty officials, this means that future negotiations will be no more than a formal meeting. But for Russia now it is very important to decide how the Russian military will inspect anti-missile objects in Eastern Europe.

Also in October of last year it was discovered, that USA has been holding secret negotiations with Turkey about placement their anti-missile system. This information was given by press-secretary of Pentagon Jeff Morrell. When talking about Robet Gates’s visit to Ankara, he noted that.

“The main topic of discussion was military operation of Turkish army in Iraq. Moreover, he has duscussed plans of the development of anti-missile system with the President Gule and the Prime-minister Erdogan”

More recently, it was revealed that the US is discussing its participation in an Indian missile defense system.[Add text about India too, so I can link to old article.

All these facts leave less oportunities for Russia to significantly influence the anti-missile system placement, and don’t leave any room for optimism about Tuesday’s negotiations.

I don’t normally post quick video posts like this any more, but I think I’ll make an exception for Hillary Clinton’s mangling of Dmitry Medvedev’s name in yesterday’s Democratic debate.

To give Clinton some credit, though, she does at least know who calls the shots in Russia:

“I have no doubt that as the president of the United States, even though technically the meetings would be with the person labelled as president, the decisions will be made by Putin.”

Obama holds pretty much the same view, but was at least able to show off with a little background information about Putin.

“He is someone who was handpicked by Putin. And Putin has made it very clear he will continue to have the strongest hand in Russia when it comes to the government.”

Still, it’s nice to see that some consideration is being to Russia in the US Presidential election.

Update: Russia Today have a fuller report on the debate here.

Russia isn’t the only place holding a Presidential election in 2008, you know. The more eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted that there is a rather trivial contest currently taking place in America.

It’s Super Tuesday today in the US so, in the interests of making sure that all elections are covered fairly, I thought I’d take a look at what each of the remaining US presidential candidates has to say about Russia and about our hero Vladimir Putin, the mighty President they all hope one day to emulate…

Let’s start off with the Republican candidates. And, it must be said, some of them have some very strange views indeed.

First up is Mitt Romney, who really knows how to spew out the verbal vomit. Take, for example, his response to the news that Time Magazine had nominated Putin as their Person of the Year:

“Oh, you are kidding. That’s disgusting. I’m absolutely - I mean, are you - I mean, I haven’t seen Time. Are you serious?”

But at least he recovered his composure enough to tell us just why he was disgusted:

“Well, you know, he imprisoned his political opponents. There have been a number of highly suspicious murders. He has squelched public dissent and free press. And to suggest that someone like that is the man of the year is really disgusting. I’m just appalled.”

At least he’s concerned. Ron Paul, the doggedly determined outsider candidate, seemed to be more concerned with demonstrating his independence from mainstream thought than actual politics when he became the sole member of the House to vote against a 2007 resolution that noted…

“…the disturbing pattern of killings of numerous independent journalists in Russia since 2000, and urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to authorize cooperation with outside investigators in solving those murders.”

Ron Paul excepted, the Republican party line seems to be ‘we don’t love Putin’. Mick Huckabee is no exception. When asked about Putin’s infamous topless fishing picture, Huckabee confessed his true love for another:

“While I am impressed with the fact he can get out and go fishing, the shirtless photo doesn’t do anything for me. Now, if it was a picture of Scarlett Johansson, that would be another story.”

Indeed.

The Republican prize, though, has to go to old-timer John McCain, who drew on all his years of experience to look deep into Putin’s eyes and see more than just his soul:

“I know Mr. Putin. I’ve looked into his eyes, and I saw three letters — KGB.”

McCain’s not just about the soundbytes, though - he’s able to resist the urge to get all hysterical and give us considered analysis as well:

Putin is going to cause us a lot of difficulties…I don’t think it’s going to be a return to the cold war, they don’t have the population…anything that would bring around the kind of military might that they once had, even with the petrodollars….but they are trying to reassert the Russian empire…and they are going to be a thorn in our side.

As I write this, there are only two Democratic candidates still standing - Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Hillary, as you might expect, trots out a tired soundbite:

“This is the president that looked into the soul of Putin, I could have told him, he was a KGB agent, by definition he doesn’t have a soul, I mean this is a waste of time, right, this is nonsense.”

Now where have we heard that before?

Clinton seems to have pretty much given up on the idea of promoting democracy in Russia, too:

“I’m interested in what Russia does outside its borders first. I don’t think I can, as the president of the United States, wave my hand and tell the Russian people they should have a different government.”

At least Barack Obama finds time to talk policy about Russia, even if he is dull, and manages to slightly contradict himself:

We will not pursue unilateral disarmament. As long as nuclear weapons exist, we’ll retain a strong nuclear deterrent. But we’ll keep our commitment under the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty on the long road towards eliminating nuclear weapons. We’ll work with Russia to take U.S. and Russian ballistic missiles off hair-trigger alert, and to dramatically reduce the stockpiles of our nuclear weapons and material. We’ll start by seeking a global ban on the production of fissile material for weapons. And we’ll set a goal to expand the U.S.-Russian ban on intermediate-range missiles so that the agreement is global.

So, there you have it. You can now make a considered decision as to which candidate best represents your views on Russia.

But, before you go, just a quick reminder of why these six candidates have survived this far - they’re not as stupid as Bill Richardson:

“If I am elected President I will… seek immediate negotiations with the Soviet Union.”

And now, to vote…