Barack Obama urges Russia not to interfere in neighbouring states

[CHIMO]

Source: guardian.co.uk

Barack Obama today set out his vision for a new post-cold war world, and urged Russia not to interfere in neighbouring states and to move on "from old ways of thinking".

In a keynote speech during his first trip to Russia as US president, Obama called on Moscow to stop viewing America as an adversary. The assumption that Russia and the US were eternal antagonists was "a 20th-century view" rooted in the past, he said.

Obama delivered a tough, though implicit, critique of Kremlin foreign policy, rejecting the claim it has "privileged interests" in post-Soviet countries. He said the 19th-century doctrine of spheres of influence and "great powers forging competing blocs" was finished.

"In 2009, a great power does not show strength by dominating or demonising other countries. The days when empires could treat sovereign states as pieces on a chessboard are over," he said, speaking to graduates from Moscow's New Economic School.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/07/obama-russia-first-trip

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Absolutely! Russia should get out of Iraq and Afghanistan now!

[CHIMO]

2. High stakes for Honduras

The US should give clearer signals of its support for the restoration of President Zelaya, the victim of a right-wing coup

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/07/honduras-zelaya-class-struggle

[Mari333]

3. lol no kidding as if we have any credentials anywhere

we need to stfu and clean up our own messes before we tell other countries what to do.

[Billy Burnett]

8. Cleaning? We're busy making more messes.

Mr Obama makes many of the right utterances (with some waffling), but head on over to the Latin America forum and see that Rummy's & CheneyCrime stooges are still at work within the State dept and Pentagon doing their dirty work in the Latin Americas, featuring Honduras this month. Very interesting stuff.

[rpannier]

4. Of course the US Gov't wants them to stay out

When Israel wants to start firing missiles they don't want Russia acting against it

[AlphaCentauri]

5. Yuri see if all those missiles in our back yard have gone n/t

[winyanstaz]

6. Umm...but...but...but...

Aren't we still in Iraq and Afganistan? Arent we the biggest invaders of other nations on the planet right now?
Stop it Obama!! Your confusing us. :P

[Cha]

7. They're not our

neighbors.

[Vidar]

9. Russia can't "interfere in neighbouring states". That's our job.

[TheLastMohican]

10. Obama should pull his head out of his a.....

And stop those "color revolutions" and pull out all those military bases all over Europe, so that anything he says will be treated seriously.

Right now he seems like Bush light version.

[Nihil]

11. "Yeah, just do what we do ..."

"... and interfere with countries thousands of miles away!"

This part is my real favourite though:
> "In 2009, a great power does not show strength by dominating or
> demonising other countries. The days when empires could treat
> sovereign states as pieces on a chessboard are over"

:spray: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Man, that guy is just brilliant!
There's probably no one else who would have attempted to say
that with a straight face!

It's a shame that they cut his next comment ("Hah! Fooled you!")
from the transcript though ...

[pinniped]

12. This sounds like a line out of *'s playbook.

Ya, no meddling in neighboring states, especially Poland. The US already has first dibs on the missile shield there.