U.S. - Russian Relations Are Now Entering A New Phase

Photo: SUSPICION Russians noticed when Vice President Biden visited Georgia’s President, Mikheil Saakashvili, July 22, a year after the Russia-Georgia war. David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters

America Hears a Gaffe, Russia Sees a Plot -- New York Times

AFTER Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal portraying Russia as a limping and humbled nation, many in Washington responded last week with a helpless shrug: There’s crazy Joe, they said, the guy who once told a wheelchair-bound state senator to stand up for a round of applause.

But in Russia, they weren’t shrugging. Within hours, a top Kremlin aide had released a barbed statement comparing Mr. Biden to Dick Cheney. Commentators announced Mr. Biden’s emergence as Washington’s new “gray cardinal” — the figure who, from the shadows, makes all the decisions that matter. Others said Washington’s mask had been torn off, revealing Mr. Obama’s “reset” as at best insubstantial and at worst duplicitous.

American officials spent several days trying to convince their Russian counterparts that Mr. Biden’s words were, for lack of a better label, a gaffe. Russia’s highest officials have kept silent on the matter, but their initial responses were skeptical.

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My Comment: The New York Times writes a long article that tries to explain Vice President Biden's Russian remarks.

It fails.

Vice President Biden said what he said because he believes in it.... nothing less nothing more. I know that. Most pundits know that. And now .... the Russians know that.