Obama promised Medvedev and Putin 'greater flexibility' after his re-election
Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting in Seoul in 2012
On Monday, October 22, 2012, during the presidential debates, Mitt Romney raised the issue of Obama’s promise to Putin that he would “have greater flexibility” after his re-election in the U.S. This was said by Obama without protocol to Medvedev, who promised to relay it to Putin. In America, this was seen as a secret collusion with Russia and a surrender of national interests.
Mitt Romney in Jerusalem at the Jewish temple “Western Wall.”
Mitt Romney assessed Russia as a “geopolitical adversary.” He said: “First, Russia, I note, is a geopolitical adversary. Russia time and again continues to battle us at the U.N. I have my eyes open to this. I am not going to look through rose-colored glasses when it comes to Russia and Mr. Putin… Russia has announced that it no longer intends to comply with the Nunn-Lugar (“Cooperative Threat Reduction” (CTR)). I look at the world and I do not find our influence growing. I see our influence retreating, partly because of how President Obama is handling our economic problems at home, partly because of our abandonment of our commitment to our military, and partly, I think it must be, because of the confusion with Israel.”
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A scandal linked to the unexpected leak of the content of a private conversation between U.S. and Russian Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the nuclear summit in Seoul.
Thinking no one could hear them, the leaders exchanged a couple of remarks on the thorny issue of missile defense (BMD). But it turned out the microphones were on, and journalists entering the hall where closed negotiations were underway could hear Obama, leaning toward his Russian counterpart, assuring him that a solution on BMD could be found. Obama said: “These are my last elections. After my re-election, I will have more flexibility” (“After my election I have more flexibility”). “I understand; I will pass this information to Vladimir (Putin),” responded Russian President Medvedev.
Republicans and a number of media outlets in the United States immediately accused the president of betraying national interests. As a result, not only White House representatives but Barack Obama personally were forced to make excuses.
The phrase Obama said to Medvedev was harshly characterized by former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton. He called his statement “a fire alarm sounding at night.” In his view, this is a worrying sign that Obama not only will scale back missile defense but also plans to make concessions on important national defense issues.
Obama’s main rival in the upcoming election, Mitt Romney, commenting on the scandal, stated that Americans have the right to know exactly what the president promised the Russians to be more flexible on. Romney also reminded his fellow citizens that Russia is the “chief geopolitical adversary of the U.S.” Obama is “brainwashing the American people,” as quoted by Romney in the Los Angeles Times.
The Washington Times commentator Brett Decker, commenting on the exposed “secret plans” of the president to increase flexibility, writes that Obama’s second term in this light becomes the sole threat “even more dangerous for America’s future than all the debts and failed political decisions accumulated during his first term.”
According to The Washington Times, the scandal showed that the American leader “has dangerous ideas hidden up his sleeve.” When Obama asks the boss of “managed democracy” to tie diplomatic efforts to the election calendar, he thereby encourages Putin’s conviction that Russian democracy differs from Western democracy only in the degree of manipulation of the people, The Washington Post believes, in turn.
Meanwhile, the now-revealed secret message from Obama to new Russian President Vladimir Putin promising to be more flexible after a possible re-election is bidding to enter the golden fund of embarrassments in front of a treacherously live microphone. Foreign Policy has compiled a ranking of “gaffes” made by world politicians.
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