Mixed Messages
Fast on the heals of President Obama’s relations-thawing trip to Russia came this startling statement from the Vice President:
The reality is the Russians are where they are. They have a shrinking population base, they have a withering economy, they have a banking sector and structure that is not likely to be able to withstand the next 15 years, they’re in a situation where the world is changing before them and they’re clinging to something in the past that is not sustainable.
Now don’t get me wrong: the Russians continue to be dangerous. Russia is one of the few countries in the world where officials will lie to your face, telling you stories that are demonstrably false. As the Economist pointed out a few months ago, the US looms much larger in the Russian mind than vice versa. As such, the Russians often play a zero sum game where it seems that in order for them to feel like they’ve won, you have to loose.
All that being said, President Obama has just expended considerable political capital on thawing relations with the Russians and trying to bring them on board with several initials that are in our national interest. For the Vice President to sharply undercut this hard works so quickly seems… at the very least a little strange. But then the Vice President is notorious for making, shall we say, “inopportune” remarks.
Not every truth needs to be aired publicly, especially when you’re an elected official.