An
extract from.... |
|
| Below Surface, U.S. Harbors Dim View of Putin and Russia | |
| State’s Secrets Day 4 | |
 |
|
| A 2008 campaign
ad in Moscow heralds the team of Vladimir V. Putin and Dmitri A. Medvedev: "Together we will win." |
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| By C.J. Chivers | |
| Thursday, December 2, 2010 | |
|
In reporting to Washington, diplomats often summarized impressions from
meetings not with Russian officials, but with Western colleagues or business
executives. The impressions of a largely well-known cadre of Russian journalists,
opposition politicians and research institute regulars rounded out many
cables, with insights resembling what was published in liberal Russian
newspapers and on Web sites. |
|
The
cables sketched life almost 20 years after the Soviet Union’s disintegration,
a period, as the cables noted, when Mr. Medvedev, the prime minister’s
understudy, is the lesser part of a strange “tandemocracy” and “plays
Robin to Putin’s Batman.” All the while, another cable noted, “Stalin’s
ghost haunts the Metro.” |
|
| And one from.... | |
| Pervasive Afghan Graft, Starting at the Top | |
| State’s Secrets Day 5 | |
| By Scott Shane, Mark Mazzetti and Dexter Filkins | |
| Friday, December 3, 2010 | |
| In September, President Obama acknowledged the dilemma. "Are there going to be occasions where we look and see that some of our folks on the ground have made compromises with people who are known to have engaged in corruption?" he asked. "There may be occasions where that happens." | |
| .... | |
| Western officials, it [one of the cables] said, "walk a thin tightrope when working with this allegedly corrupt official [Colonel Abdul Razziq] who is also a major security stabilizating force. | |
Comment: |
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| On the Day 4 article: | |
| I just like the diplomats' idioms and use of 'Stalin's ghost' on the Metro (although I suppose that these could be attributed to their Western colleagues as well as the American ones). | |
| On the Day 5 article: | |
| Go read the original Flashman book to see how little the area has changed. | |
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The
rest of the article is available from: |
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