Dmitry Medvedev calls for Europe to freeze out US
Submitted by JeanLR on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 2:06pm.
News of the Day
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev calls for Europe to freeze out US
The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, has called on European leaders to create a new world order that minimises the role of the US.
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Last Updated: 6:33PM BST 08 Oct 2008
"...Mr Medvedev sought to show that the United States was at the root of all the world's problems.
He blamed Washington's "economic egotism" for the world's financial woes and then accused the Bush administration of taking Europe to the brink of a new cold war by pursuing a deliberately divisive foreign policy. He also maintained that the United States was once again trying to return to a policy of containing Russia.
"After toppling the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the United States started a series of unilateral actions," Mr Medvedev said. "As a result, a trend appeared in international relations towards creating dividing lines. This was in fact the revival of a policy popular in the past and known as containment."
While he called for a cooling of the noxious rhetoric that has blighted East-West relations in the past two years, Mr Medvedev clearly laid the blame for the deterioration on the United States, which he said was again viewing Russian through the prism of the Cold War.
"Sovietology, like paranoia, is a very dangerous disease, and it is a pity that part of the US administration still suffers from it," he said.
To remedy Washington's ambitions to play the global policeman, Mr Medvedev proposed an overhaul of the world's security and financial structures. ..."
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Putin: US image damaged forever over economy woes
maybe no one cares what Russians think, but the fact is that this kind of sentiment was never before expressed, at least in my lifetime, yet here we are, our nation's dominant role in the world being dismissed as "over". We are so screwed, if we can't figure out how to restore the world's respect for our country. . .well I have no good ideas, I'm just a "Jean 6-pack".
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hAow61U7kW5ktEJ4qIzEUoLSeI4AD93N6OBG1
Putin: US image damaged forever over economy woes
17 hours ago
MOSCOW (AP) — The financial crisis has irreparably damaged the image of the U.S. as the leader of the free world and the global economy, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
Putin's remarks during a Communist Party meeting were the latest Russian attack singling out the U.S. as the chief culprit in the global financial turmoil.
"Trust in the United States as the leader of the free world and the free economy, and confidence in Wall Street as the center of that trust, has been damaged, I believe, forever," Putin said. "There will be no return to the previous situation."
Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev have repeatedly accused the U.S. of responsibility for the crisis and called for changes in the world financial system.
Finance ministers of the G-7 — the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — meet beginning Friday in Washington. When Russia joins the group for political discussions, it becomes the G-8.