Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Yesterday I posted about Musharraf telling us how he really feels about the situation in Iraq. Today, we get Putin explaining that the occupation goes "far beyond" fighting terrorism and that the idea of holding fair elections in an occupied country is unlikely:
President Vladimir Putin, meeting on Tuesday with Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has called the U.S.-led military campaign in Iraq a foreign occupation and said its activities there go far beyond fighting terrorism.
“You know how we feel about the war against terrorism,” the Russian Information Agency Novosti quoted him as saying at the Kremlin meeting with Allawi, who is in Moscow on a state visit. “We are united in your fight against it, we understand that the processes in Iraq go far beyond this problem.”
Reuters quoted the Russian president, who, despite his friendship with U.S. President George Bush, opposed the war in Iraq, as saying that he can’t imagine how an election can be organized in Iraq under foreign occupation.
“I also cannot imagine how you on your own will be able to restore the situation in the country and stop it from breaking up.”
