John McCain made clear Wednesday that he would take a much tougher stance than President Bush against Russia, which he accused of “nuclear blackmail” and “cyber attacks.”
In a major foreign policy address, the Republican presidential candidate called for expelling Russia from the Group of Eight industrialized nations to punish Moscow for backsliding on democratic reforms. It was a far cry from Bush’s tendency to accommodate Russia, even as it has grown restive in recent
years.
Speaking to the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles, McCain said the United States must confront “the dangers posed” by a Russia interested in avenging past defeats by regaining lost status, which he called one of the “challenges of the 21st century.”
“We should start by ensuring that the G-8, the group of eight highly industrialized states, becomes again a club of leading market democracies: It should include Brazil and India but exclude Russia,” McCain said. “Rather than tolerate Russia’s nuclear blackmail or cyber attacks, Western nations should make clear that the solidarity of NATO, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, is indivisible and that the organization’s doors remain open to all democracies committed to the defense of freedom.”
Alexander Lukashevich, senior political counselor at the Russian Embassy in Washington, scoffed at McCain’s description of Russia. He told The Examiner it was a “fairy tale” for McCain to suggest Moscow is interested in “revenge.”
Lukashevich noted that McCain’s tough talk comes “just at the moment when we are negotiating a very strategic-oriented framework agreement” with the United States. The agreement will be discussed by Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin in April in the Black Sea resort of
Sochi.
“I am going to go to Russia,” Bush announced Wednesday. “President Putin has invited me to go to Sochi and it’s to discuss the strategic agreement, a crucial part of which is missile defense.”
Russia scholar Marshall Goldman of Harvard said the meeting suggests Bush and Putin, both of whom are nearing the end of their presidencies, want to “work out some of the differences before new administrations take over in both countries.”
“There has been this very close relationship between Bush and Putin, which seems very unnatural in many ways,” Goldman told The Examiner. “Given their other proclivities, you wouldn’t think the two of them would bond as closely as they have.”
Goldman predicted a cooling of U.S.-Russian relations when Bush is succeeded by either McCain, a Republican, or one of the Democratic presidential candidates, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
“I don’t think we’ve heard anything quite as hard as [McCain’s rhetoric] either from Obama or Clinton, but they certainly have been more skeptical of Russia and certainly of Putin,” he said.
