Resolute with Russia
A month
after delivering his visionary inaugural address on the commitment of the United States to foster freedom and
democracy, President Bush sat down yesterday at the Bratislava summit in Slovakia with Russian President
Vladimir Putin, the architect of post-Soviet "managed" democracy.
The Bush-Putin summit
comes at a time when the Kremlin is on the offensive. It is moving to contain the burgeoning democracy in the
former Soviet Union and to cement Russia's ties with those among the former Soviet republics which have the
poorest human rights records. Russia is attempting to distance the United States from those countries. Of
particular interest to us as chairman and co-chairman of the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in
Europe, the Russian rhetoric assailing the democracy-promoting activities of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has intensified.
Moscow is now threatening to paralyze the OSCE
by holding its budget hostage. Russia reportedly will not give consent to the budget unless a committee is
created to review the electoral commitments of the OSCE. The committee would attempt to revisit and water down
the longstanding commitments using the pretext of setting "minimum standards" for judging whether elections are
indeed free and fair. Russia appears determined to undermine the democratic commitments that are at the very
heart of the OSCE, the power of the ideals behind OSCE commitments Russia has agreed to support, including that
the will of the people is the basis of legitimate government.
Russia and its allies --
particularly the outpost of tyranny, Belarus -- have responded to the pro-democracy developments in Georgia and
Ukraine by attacking the commitments of the OSCE. Russia, the other former Soviet states and all OSCE countries
have formally agreed that a democracy based on the will of the people and expressed regularly through free and
fair elections, is the only acceptable form of government for our nations.
While claiming to
observe the voluntary commitments accepted when their countries joined the OSCE in 1992, most leaders within the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have remained in control by rigging elections and excluding potential
rivals, sometimes using criminal means, which is in contradiction to the commitments. Since the late 1990s,
Russian-led observer delegations from the CIS routinely approved of elections in CIS countries, which OSCE-led
observers overtly criticized or damned with quiet condemnation.
We understand that some
members of the OSCE in Vienna are inclined to pursue a policy of engaging Russia on the issue, in the hopes of
finding some common ground. While we are not adverse to engagement with the Russians, the fundamentals of
democratization and elections must not be fodder for appeasement or used as bargaining chips. Indeed, we have
already found common ground: the considerable body of existing OSCE commitments on democracy that our countries
have signed and that Mr. Putin and his shrinking circle of allies seem intent on scuttling.
We must not ignore the fact that human rights, civil and religious liberties and media freedom have been
gravely undermined on Mr. Putin's watch. The deteriorating human-rights trends give cause for serious concern.
As Mr. Bush directly declared in his inaugural address, "we will encourage reform in other governments by making
clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people." The Bratislava
summit will provide a timely opportunity for the president to underscore this point face to face with his
Russian counterpart.
It is also essential that Mr. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice respond resolutely to this challenge, insisting that there be no retreat from OSCE commitments and
principles to placate Mr. Putin. Moscow may be intent on precipitating a crisis in the OSCE, or even threatening
its very existence. Nevertheless, having stood firm against rigged elections in Ukraine, the United States must
not be bullied into concessions. Watering down the democratic content of the OSCE would not only undermine the
organization's reason for being, but would undercut the very people struggling to be free.
Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican and Rep. Christopher H. Smith, New Jersey Republican, serve
respectively as chairman and co-chairman of the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe .
The United States Helsinki Commission, an independent federal agency, by law monitors and
encourages progress in implementing provisions of the Helsinki Accords. The Commission, created in 1976, is
composed of nine Senators, nine Representatives and one official each from the Departments of State, Defense and
Commerce.