Putin Plays Hardball.........

[Dover]

Putin uses hard-ball tactics to win Bush endorsement for Russia

Putin's message was striking but simple: The only reason why Russia cooperated with the United States in the post-September 11 campaign in Afghanistan was because the Russian leader had developed a personal liking for Bush.

"And if by that time president Bush and I had not formed an appropriate relationship -- as we have -- no one knows what turn of events the developments in Afghanistan would have taken," Putin said with a wry grin.

Analysts widely interpreted those comments as a veiled threat against the US administration, delivered at a time when everyone was expecting Putin to only redouble his efforts to confirm his alliance with Washington.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/030929/1/3ekcj.html

Pootie Poot is enjoying this....

[Fight_n_back]

1. Ive said it before

not only is Bush not in Putin's league...they aren't even playing the same game.

[grasswire]

2. these guys?

[E_Zapata]

3. veiled threat? Sounded like a pretty wide open threat to me

That's more insidiously evil than Bush crying about 'evil-doers'

Keep in mind that Russia can match us 1 to 1 on nukes - not that either country would need all 10,000 to 13,000 nukes to end life on the planet.

[Dover]

4. Putin also hinted that oil prices might be sky high right now

if it were not for Russia. (I'm guessing he is referring to Russia's challenge last year to OPEC, remaining independent with their oil and making it difficult for them to control the price). The U.S. has not made very many concessions to Russia for all it's cooperation in this bogus "war on terror". I'm sure the Bushco arrogance has worn VERY thin too.

.....But Putin did not stop there.

Instead he pressed ahead by underlining the importance of Russia -- the world's number one natural gas and second-largest oil exporter -- to US energy interests.

"It is difficult to say what prices would be now -- how high prices for fuel in international energy markets would be now if we had not had such dialogue" with Bush, Putin said.

Bush did not respond directly to Putin's second warning.

He did, however, all but endorse Putin's campaign in separatist Chechnya -- something that Europe has refused to do -- by announcing that "I respect president Putin's vision for Russia: a country at peace within its borders, with its neighbors and with the world."