Sep 15 2008
And Speaking of Doctrines….Is it the Putin Doctrine or the Medvedev Doctrine?
So here is a good current example of the way “doctrines” happen: Russia fighting Georgia over the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and the subsequent negative reactions from the U.S. and the E.U. will no doubt influence the way Russia interacts with the West in the future. The leader of Russia will make a speech announcing his post-Caucasus crisis foreign policy and that will be dubbed a doctrine—but whose doctrine? That of the current president Dmitry Medvedev or the former president and current prime minister, Vladimir Putin? Typically, the president of a country handles foreign policy matters while the prime minister handles domestic relations…in countries where you have both and the president is not a just figure-head.
This BBC article may shed some light on the issue. Technically, the person who started the war, who is commander-in-chief in Medvedev. So, why are all the U.S. politicians speaking about convincing Puting of this or that? Wouldn’t a better course of action be to reach out to the new leader and start a fresh new U.S.-Russian relationship one new world leader to another?
