Tuesday, June 23, 2015

U.S. Defense Secretary: We Hope Russia Will Change Direction When Putin Is Gone

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter testifies before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2016 on Capitol Hill in Washington March 3, 2015. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

The Guardian: US hopes Russia may change direction when Vladimir Putin is gone

US defence secretary Ash Carter speculates that Russia may be more ‘forward-looking’ after its current president has moved on

US defence secretary Ash Carter said the US and Nato needed a “strong but balanced” approach to Russia, and he questioned whether Moscow’s “backward-looking” aggressive behaviour would change while President Vladimir Putin remains at the helm.

Speaking to reporters traveling with him to Europe on Sunday, Carter said he couldn’t be certain Putin would change direction, so allies must use a two-pronged approach that works with Russia on some issues while also girding to deter and respond to Moscow’s aggression.

WNU Editor: A few months ago I wrote that Moscow had  written off the Obama administration .... and are just waiting for the next administration to come into power. Now .... I read and learn that the U.S. is thinking alone the same lines .... that the White House is just going to sit back and wait until Putin is gone. Here is my prediction on what will happen .... Obama will be out of office and busy doing business deals and speaking engagements that will propel him to make hundreds of millions of dollars, and Putin will still be the Russian President.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

usa is lookning at longer game when is out of way completely

Daniel said...

Not necessarily, WNU, he could also be Prime Minister! :)

I will grant though that Putin disappearing from the scene entirely would be a bigger change than Obama doing so. On the other hand, I am not sure there is much incentive for any reasonable Russian elite to not pursue a moderately anti-American line.