WASHINGTON, DC, June 23, 2007 (LPAC)--Yesterday's joint forum of the U.S. House of Representatives and Russian State Duma International Relations Committees featured sharp polemics, along with a pair of promising cooperation ideas. The tone for the pointed discussions was set earlier in the week, however, when House International Relations Chairman Tom Lantos (D-CA) demonstrated his cartoon diplomacy by comparing Russian President Vladimir Putin to Popeye the Sailor, flexing his muscles after gobbling up oil money the way Popeye eats spinach. Russian press headlined, "Congressman compares President with cartoon character on eve of Russian visit."
Chairman Lantos was joined by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), as well as members of the committee. Other Members of Congress were present, including Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). In the Russian delegation were International Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachov (United Russia), First Deputy Chairman Leonid Slutsky (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia), and Deputy Chairmen Alexander Kozlovsky (United Russia) and Natalya Narochnitskaya (For A Just Russia-Rodina).
Lantos effusively praised the late President Boris Yeltsin as truly exemplary of democratization, saying that after Yeltsin's departure from office, i.e., since Putin took power, "we have had a number of very severe problems in our relations with Russia." Lantos went on to cite Kremlin control of Russian TV and the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya and other journalists, as typifying these problems, while he located common U.S.-Russian interests "in halting Iran's headlong rush towards acquiring nuclear weapons." Lantos said that the U.S. Administration may have "mishandled" the proposed placement of anti-missile defenses in the Czech Republic and Poland, but that not a single Member of Congress believes they are aimed against Russia.
Kosachov rebutted Lantos point by point, saying that Russia would not accept "criticism based on unilateral, one-sided sources." Kosachov also cited Putin's 70-80% popularity and the increase in real incomes in Russia.
Dana Rohrabacher (D-CA) focused on potential hi-tech joint ventures, such as on high temperature gas-cooled reactors for nuclear power, and airborne laser anti-missile defense systems, which he suggested Russia and the USA could work on together. Rohrabacher cited President Reagan's original SDI proposal, in this context. Slutsky thanked Rohrabacher for this "extremely constructive statement," which he remarked had raised the discussion to the level of real cooperation.
Elliot Engel (D-NJ) held forth on the Balkans situation: either Russia accept the Ahtisaari plan for independence of Kosovo from Serbia, or Russia will be isolated. A ferocious debate ensued as Kozlovsky attacked this threat, and Lantos interrupted him as Kozlovsky drew the comparison with breakaway districts within Georgia; Lantos aggressively maintained that only in Kosovo had there been ethnic cleansing. This brought a pointed rejoinder from Narochnitskaya, a historian, both on the history of the Balkans and on the protocol question of interrupting a visiting Parliamentarian's speech.
On her web site today, Narochnitskaya notes that she presented Pelosi with a five-part report, issued by her Historical Perspective Foundation, titled "Human Rights in the USA." She says that the two delegations signed a Russian-drafted pledge not to promote legislation detrimental to the security interests of the other, but that the spirit of that agreement was already violated during these talks, including a visit by the two delegations with Undersecretary of State Daniel Fried, who presented a similar position on Kosovo as Engel had done.
The visiting Russian delegation and many other attendees received from LaRouche Political Action Committee the LPAC pamphlet "LaRouche's Visit to Moscow: A Strategy for War Avoidance," along with recent speeches by LaRouche and EIR articles, translated into Russian.
