USA And The Future Of The World

[acharya]

<b>From Russia with love?</b>
By Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's Senior Political Analyst, in New York

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->But as in Ian Fleming's From Russia with Love, smooth talk and sophisticated mannerisms only hid plots and counterplots.<b>

When Bush tried to lecture his Russian host, yet again, about democracy during the 2006 G8 summit, Putin took a direct jab at the US president: "We certainly would not want to have same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, quite honestly."

At that time, the US were six years into the Afghanistan war and three years into Iraq's; the US was growing insecure because of the loss of its strategic capital and financial prestige around the world.

In the meantime, the robust and confident Russian leadership under Putin benefited from higher oil prices and grew bolder vis-à-vis the Bush administration's foreign policies.

While the ridiculing of the macho Texan did not go down too well, Bush's need for Putin's help with a number of strategic challenges around the world stretching from North Korea to Iran helped defuse tensions.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->