DUSHANBE, 19 October 2004 — Russian President Vladimir Putin all but endorsed US President George W. Bush yesterday, saying that terror attacks in Iraq aimed to sink his reelection bid and warning they would likely increase if successful.
“Any objective observer understands that attacks by international terrorist organizations in Iraq, in today’s circumstances, are aimed not so much at the international coalition as at President Bush personally,” he said.
“International terrorists aim to cause maximum damage to Bush ... to not allow his reelection to a second term,” he said at a press conference while on a visit to the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan in Central Asia.
If they “manage to do this, then they will celebrate victory over America and all of the international coalition,” he said.
“We have to understand that such a case will provide an additional impulse to international terrorism, boost their strength and could lead to an increase of their activities in various regions of the world.”
The comments were a virtual endorsement of a man with whom Putin enjoys cordial and relaxed relations and who once said that he had looked deep into the former KGB agent’s eyes and had seen his soul. Conventional wisdom in Moscow is of strong opinion that Bush - the man who Russia feared in 2000 because of his missile defense and NATO expansion plans - is the far more pliable option here than the Democratic hopeful John Kerry, who is concerned with how Russia itself is actually run.
The differences in approaches to Russia were clear in the US candidates’ first debate in September. “I’ve got a good relation with Vladimir, and it’s important that we do have a good relation because that enables me to better comment to him and to better discuss with him some of the decisions he makes,” said Bush.
“Mr. Putin now controls all the television stations. His political opposition is being put in jail...Freedom on the march? Not in Russia right now,” said Kerry.
Putin was careful to underline that he disagreed with Bush over the Iraq invasion - which Russia along with Germany and France had bitterly opposed - and that Moscow would respect the choice of the American voters on Nov. 2.
“We have to be ready for any development and will respect any choice of the American people and will work with any elected president,” he said. “I would not want to ruin my relationship with any of the candidates.”
“Russia was always against the military campaign in Iraq and today our views with President Bush (on this topic) differ considerably,” he said. Putin became Bush’s ally in the war on terror — using the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to justify his own war in Chechnya that had been roundly condemned at its start in 1999.
