July 8, 2009

President Obama’s Visit to Russia Ends without Benefit to US

As predicted in our exclusive Gerard Group interview with Konstantin Preobrezhensky, President Obama allowed himself to be manipulated by Vladimir Putin during his first visit to the Russian Republic.

Obama's meeting with Prime Minister Putin revealed an American president unprepared to face the Russian bear. Instead of the intended discussion of issues, including Iran, North Korea, the missile shield in Europe, a possible war in Georgia , etc., Putin launched into a rambling monologue about the history of the Cold War.

The Russian Prime Minister's lecture took a full hour to conclude, after which there was precious little of the allotted time left for President Obama to discuss the long list of pressing issues with Putin.

In evaluating the lack of positive results from the visit, David Satter, Visiting Scholar at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, said, “Obama himself is responsible for this situation, first with his reference to the need to ‘reset’ relations and then with his eagerness to please his hosts in Moscow by speaking about a U.S. evaluation of whether a proposed anti-missile shield based in Eastern Europe would actually work.”

When asked about Obama's treatment at the hands of Prime Minister Putin, Michael McFaul, the president’s Russia adviser responded, “I dare you to think of a summit that was so substantive.” The official denial was designed to eclipse Putin’s predicted strategy, which was to place Obama in a position of submission. By forcing him to listen to an irrelevant lecture that used up valuable time, Putin made the President look weak and unable to control the meeting. The outcome of this embarrassing summit will likely result in the White House giving in to a wide variety of concessions to Russia over the coming weeks and months.

To better appreciate the Russian mentality and the reasons President Obama's Kremlin visit ended as a squandered opportunity, don't miss Gerard Group's exclusive interview series with former KGB Lt. Colonel Konstantin Preobrezhensky. (You can find the interview here.)

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