Vlad the Blackmailer

‘We will have to get new targets in Europe,’ Vladimir Putin said in an interview last week. ‘Which weapons will be used …ballistic missiles, cruise missiles or some completely new systems — that’s a technical matter.’ The apparent purpose of this outburst was geopolitical blackmail. Ostensibly at least, the Russian President was warning George W. Bush of terrible consequences should the US pursue its plan to station anti-missile defence systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. Not quite Khrushchev banging his shoe, but the closest that Mr Putin has come to such tactics.

Speaking in advance of the G8 summit in Germany, President Bush parried with an attack on Mr Putin’s human rights record. ‘In Russia, reforms that once promised to empower citizens have been derailed, with troubling implications for democratic development,’ Mr Bush said at a conference in Prague. ‘If standing for liberty in the world makes me a dissident, then I’ll wear the title with pride.’