What Obama failed to say in Moscow

Vladimir Abarinov / www.grani.ru

The speech that Barack Obama delivered in Moscow was announced as the continuation of the speech he made in Prague and Cairo, yet another evangel of "good news” from Washington, yet another "new page” in the US relations with the outside world. Either it was decided in the last moment that the main part of the trip would be his speech in Ghana, or Obama’s advisors could not feel the firm ground in the relations with Moscow, but the speech he made in the Russian school of economics paled in comparison to specimen of president’s eloquence in other capitals of the world.

And the reaction to this speech was also lukewarm: after applauding to Gorbachev's address and smiling to Mr. Obama’s standing joke about the Moscow weather (Obama repeated it several times during his visit), the students showed no attitude to the words of the orator. US president might as well deliver a speech in the empty hall.

So why did he talk a lot about what is interesting to America and hurried through the issues that resonate with the Russian audience? The answer is simple: he has no clear task with respect to Russia. He does not know what to want from Russia.

When standing at the Berlin Wall Ronald Reagan said to Gorbatchev: “Mr. Gorbatchev, break this wall!”, he knew what he wanted from Gorbatchev. And when he passed to the Soviet leader the list of political prisoners, demanding to free them, he also knew his objective. And when Reagan made a speech at the Moscow State University, he quoted the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova's verse about the line of people waiting to pass the food to their arrested relatives, and he also knew that these words would strike the right chord in Russia.

But Mr. Obama does not seem to know. His speechwriters were probably breaking their heads to find a safe citation from the Russian poet Pushkin and finally they came up with a quotation about the need to have inspiration in geometry as well as in poetry. Even in his interview to the Russian independent newspaper “Novaya gazeta” Obama didn’t risk saying anything significant and unambiguous about the new trial of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev and the murder of the journalist Politkovskaya. Instead, we heard about his support of the "courageous initiative of president Medvedev to strengthen the rule of law in Russia" and that he “agrees with president Medvedev, who said that freedom is better than the lack of freedom.” It is likely that these issues were not discussed at all during negotiations.

Does Mr. Obama really believe that the bright future that he painted can be built hand in hand with Putin/Medvedev’s regime? Probably not. In his speech he addressed the young generation of Russian politicians who will replace the current two rulers after they play enough with power. But until this does happen, the only option left is to press the reset button in a hope that the system will start working by itself.

source: grani.ru