Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Gordon Brown Is Right

Gordon Brown is being criticised by Tory MP Greg Hands for not having met with Vladimir Putin yet. Hands contrasts this with Tony Blair who met Putin almost as soon as the latter took office and points to this piece by David Hughes in the Telegraph which claims:
His early courtship of Putin paid handsome dividends the two men got on famously thereafter.
Well that's nice to know, but the purpose of diplomacy isn't to ensure a friendly personal relationship between leaders, but to advance and protect our country's interests. Under the Blair Putin relationship the Russian government felt secure enough to practice nuclear terrorism in London. (Not to mention the unpleasant stuff it committed within it's own borders)

Compared to this I'd say Gordon Brown's approach is much the better approach.

3 comments:

James Higham said...

They hunted down some of their crims in London, yes, and bumped them off. They tried to extradite them first but when that failed, they took direct action. These crims were connected with the Beslan perpetrator. No, they shouldn't have done it in London.

Ross said...

"They hunted down some of their crims in London, yes, and bumped them off. ".

What crime had Litvinenko committed? The crime the Russian government convicted him for was "exceeding his authority" whilst working for the FSB (KGB).

Whilst he did have connections with some of the Chechnen separatists it wasn't with the Islamists who carried out the Beslan massacre, but the other lot.

North Northwester said...

Ok, some dirt even Gordo won't roll in.

Geor-Geor-Georgia's always on him mi-mi-mi-mi-mind