I can't. Performing a search of the Washington Post on Secretary Rice turns up an article on her love of football. While an interesting article, it has nothing of her important comments on the lack of Russian democracy. For a good article that quotes Dr. Rice, I had to travel across the Atlantic to read Britain's The Telegraph:
"Condoleezza Rice, the newly appointed US Secretary of State, last night signaled a hardening of relations with Moscow."
Compare this to the New York Times, which at least covered her visit (though failed to report the substantive quotes from it):
"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a top Russian envoy Saturday that Moscow's crackdown on dissent was making Russian-American relations 'more difficult,' a State Department official said. But Ms. Rice also signaled in public that the United States would not try to isolate Russia because of its actions."
The Telegraph gives these key quotes from Dr. Rice:
"It is important that Russia make clear to the world that it is intent on strengthening the rule of law, strengthening the role of the independent judiciary, permitting a free and independent press to flourish. These are all basics of democracy.
Everyone wants Russia to be a prosperous, democratic state that is fully integrated, and there are many signs that Russia has the same vision of the future."
Reading the two publications give an extremely different view of the US approach and rebuke of Russia. I will wait for the State Department's transcript release (about two days behind usually) to judge for myself which daily is more on the mark.
Putting aside the difference of reporting, Dr. Rice's glowing comments on Poland stand in stark contrast to her comments on Russia:
"I would just highlight that Poland’s role in continuing to promote democracy has helped with the Ukrainians, is helping the Iraqis, is helping the Afghans, is enormously important. It is also clear that as the Palestinian-Israeli process moves forward that we are hopeful that Poland, as a country that has good relations with both parties, will be able to play a constructive role in helping in the capacity of building the new Palestinian state in that area. And we talked about some possibilities there."
Clearly, Poland and Russia have many similarities, being post-communist countries dealing with a change to a global capitalist economy and further integration into Europe. It is unfortunate that Vladimir Putin is taking Russia in an anti-democratic direction.
Kudos to Dr. Rice for candid talk concerning democracy and publicly advancing the democratic theme of President Bush's second inaugural address. It is regrettable that better coverage of Dr. Rice's important travel and comments abroad cannot be found domestically in the United States.
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