The West’s Old Tricks

Jonathan Steele has a column in the Guardian today which some of our readers may find controversial:

Now we have Medvedev insulted on his international debut, and pilloried in Britain and the US for allegedly backing down on sanctions against Mugabe (though the G8’s threat was a good deal vaguer than Downing Street claims). Much ink has been spent in analysing whether he will be a force for change or continuity, but the answer depends in part on how he is treated by the west. If you want a new Russia, don’t play the old tricks. (…) How weird that western leaders punish the very man who wants to make Russia “one of us”.