RUSSIAN TV TELLS BUSH TO BACK KIND WORDS WITH ACTION
RTR Russia TV, Moscow
13 Sep 04
(Presenter) US President George Bush has personally expressed his
sympathy for Russian people who suffered in the terrorist attack
in North Ossetia (when school was seized by hostage-takers on 1
September). (Passage omitted: previously reported entry in book of
condolences by Bush)
(Correspondent Konstantin Semin) If you flick through this sorrowful
book, you will find entries by (Secretary of State) Colin Powell,
(head of Office of Homeland Security) Thomas Ridge and (Secretary
of Defence) Donald Rumsfeld. The doves and hawks in the Republican
administration may differ with regard to all sorts of things, but not
to terrorism. (Passage omitted: previously reported remarks by Bush)
(Correspondent) Five minutes earlier, according to eye-witnesses,
Bush assured Russian officials that there are no double standards in
the USA’s foreign policy with regard to Russia. People can write and
say different things, but you have to believe what you hear from me,
Bush said.
It seems that a sharp change in tone in commentaries in the US press is
linked to Bush’s resoluteness. Today, even the most liberal newspapers
are not advising Russia to hold talks with bandits.
(Yuriy Ushakov, Russian ambassador to USA) The tone was sympathetic
from the beginning. It was one of support, help and cooperation. From
major US figures there was not a single statement that could be read
as expressing double standards.
(Correspondent) The visit to the Russian embassy by the US president
is no ordinary event in relations between the two countries. Over the
last 20 years it has happened just twice: Ronald Reagan and George
Bush Senior came to the embassy. The reasons for their visits were
an earthquake in Armenia and the Chernobyl disaster.
If everything that Bush said is part of some kind of new course aimed
at moving closer to Russia in its fight against terrorism, the US
president’s words will need to be followed by real actions. The first
place to feel this must be the Caucasus, where the fate not just
of individuals, but of whole peoples at times depends on relations
between Moscow and Washington.