How can Medvedev transmit that Obama will be “more flexible” after the election when the president is already doing Vladimir Putin’s bidding with Congress? Washington Post columnist Jackson Diehl on the “Magnitsky bill” — a piece of legislation, authored by Democrats, that aims to restore human rights to the center of U.S.-Russian relations.
This sanction strikes at the heart of the web of corruption around Putin. Moscow’s bureaucratic mafiosi rely heavily on foreign bank accounts; they vacation in France, send their children to U.S. colleges and take refuge in London when they fall from Putin’s favor. The fear and loathing provoked in Moscow by the bill is encapsulated by item No. 3 on Putin’s new priority list: “Work actively on preventing unilateral extraterritorial sanctions by the U.S. against Russian legal entities and individuals.”
Incredibly, Obama has sided with Putin against Congress. His lobbyists have tried repeatedly to block the bill . . .
Hey, remember when everybody laughed at President Bush for claiming he looked into Putin’s eyes and saw his soul?
A naïve president is, indeed, quite troubling for our national security. But what do you call a president who goes into office knowing precisely what kind of leader Vladmir Putin is . . . and who is, to use the headline of Diehl’s column, “still sweet on Putin”?