Putin thinks Bush fired Dan Rather?!?
Vladimir Putin, CBS News Loyalist
Sunday, Feb. 27, 2005
George Bush knew Vladimir Putin would be defensive when Bush brought up the pace of democratic reform in Russia in their private meeting at the end of Bush's four-day, three-city tour of Europe. But when Bush talked about the Kremlin's crackdown on the media and explained that democracies require a free press, the Russian leader gave a rebuttal that left the President nonplussed. If the press was so free in the U.S., Putin asked, then why had those reporters at CBS lost their jobs? Bush was openmouthed. "Putin thought we'd fired Dan Rather," says a senior Administration official. "It was like something out of 1984."
The Russians did not let the matter drop. Later, during the leaders' joint press conference, one of the questioners Putin called on asked Bush about the very same firings, a coincidence the White House assumed had been orchestrated. The odd episode reinforced the Administration's view that Putin's impressions of America are often based on urban myths fed to him by ill-informed aides.
Putin's remarks, along with the subsequent question by the Russian press, could only be construed to The Ice Palace as remarks meant for public consumption. A one-time head of the KGB, Putin could in no way be *that* ignorant regarding our system of government as well as the role of the press in this country. The Ice Palace considers this as nothing more than a not-so-veiled dig at our President, and a Soviet-esque attempt at government dezinformatsia to his masses. It is also another sign that the Soviet Union of old and the Russian Federation are probably not that different after all, no?
-Psycmeistr-
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