Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters rallied outside the American Embassy in Moscow this week. News? yes. A surprise? no. 90 percent of Russians say they’re against the war in Iraq. The fine print, however, was more revealing: the rally was organized by the pro-Putin United Russia party. Not a smooth move diplomatically for a country already at risk of being shut out of the spoils of reconstruction in post-war Iraq. But with elections just a year away, Vladimir Putin can read the poll numbers as well as anyone.
The question is whom he needs more, the voters who can keep him in office, or the global ties that can help keep Russia economically viable and diplomatically relevant. Russia’s roulette with its future.
Guests:
Marshall Goldman, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Wellesley College and authorof “The Piratization of Russia: Russian Reform Goes Awry”
Vyacheslav Nikonov, President of the Polity Foundation
Sergey Rogov, Director of the Institute of USA and Canada
with John Danisweski , correspondent with the Los Angeles Times in Baghdad.