It is no secret that under the authoritarian leadership of Vladimir Putin, Russia has all but abandoned any pretext toward democratic freedom, re-embracing a totalitarian hard-line rule.

While Boris Yeltsin, may have been inept as far a presidents go, there is no doubt of his commitment to a democratic Russia. The same cannot be said of Putin. Under Putin, critics of his administration have been arrested. He has stripped the Russian people of their ability to elect local leaders, claiming it’s a protection against terrorism, and he has ruthlessly suppressed the independence of the news media in that country, this ruthlessness is also compounded by the fact that Putin has used Russia’s vast stores of oil and natural gas reserves to coerce his neighbors, all the while supporting tyrannical undemocratic regimes in the former Soviet Republics of Ukraine, Belarus, etc…

Given this reality it came as no surprise that Vice President Cheney, attending a conference of former Eastern Bloc nations in Vilnius, took the opportunity to warn of Russia’s continuing backslide and called on the Kremlin to remain firm in their commitment to democracy.

Naturally, the state controlled Russian press took exception to the criticism. Russian officials and the media dismissed the meeting as a meeting of small nations attempting to rival the G8, further demonstrating Russia’s contempt for its neighbors, others likened Cheney’s speech to that of Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech and remarked that Cheney had ushered in a new Cold War, which is laughable.

The reality is the truth hurts for the Russian regime, Cheney’s comments are 100% correct, what is surprising is that Cheney actually said it. The Russian government is no friend to the West, and through its reckless relationship with Iran, is placing the entire globe in danger. Russia, desperate to regain its former glory has fully embraced its tyrannical past and the first causality is the freedom of the Russian people, the second casualty may be us.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4972464.stm