Secretary Rice Holds a Media Availability With Polish Foreign Minister Adam Rotfield After Their Meeting, As Released By The State Department February 5, 2005
Speakers: Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary Of State Adam Rotfield, Polish Foreign Minister
RICE: The United States does have, in fact, productive relations with Russia. It is a relationship that will deepen and broaden, particularly if democratic values can find a way to take hold in Russia.
And Poland, of course, should have good relations with Russia and I know works hard at good relations with Russia. Everyone wants Russia to be a prosperous, democratic state that is a fully integrated and responsible member of the international system. And we have many good signs with Russia that Russia has the same vision of the future. And when we have differences, as we sometimes do, we have to work through those with respect for the differences, respect for both sides. But we need, both Poland and the United States, good relations with Russia.
QUESTION: Madam Secretary, you are going to see the Russian foreign minister tonight in Ankara and President Bush will see President Putin later in the month. You mentioned a moment ago occasional differences. Do you have some specific complaints you expect to raise in your meeting, or you expect President Bush to raise in his? What would you like to see Russia do differently specifically?
RICE: Well, we and the Russians have a continuing dialogue on the whole range of issues. We have been supportive, for instance, of Russian desires for WTO membership, and we - Ambassador Zoellick and Minister Gref-were just in discussions about how to accelerate Russia's accession as Russia meets the criteria for WTO membership. We, of course, are working well with the Russians in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan. We have been very heartened by the fact that Russia has been a very good partner in terms of both law enforcement and intelligence cooperation in that war.
Obviously, we have concerns and have made it clear about internal developments in Russia at this point, that it is important that Russia make clear to the world that it is intent on strengthening the rule of law, strengthening the role of an independent judiciary, permitting a free and independent press to flourish. These are all the basics of democracy. And it is no secret that we have had concerns about some of the developments in Russia. We will continue to talk to the Russians about it, because we really do believe that a more democratic foundation in Russia, as Russia makes a transition from a totalitarian state to a democratic state, that a firmer foundation for that will indeed strengthen and underscore and put real, further substance into a deepened relationship with the democracies of Europe and, indeed, with the United States.
QUESTION: One quick follow up. Do you think this evening to speak in Russian?
RICE: Well, I have to say that I think Minister Lavrov probably speaks English better than I speak Russian. We'll see which language works at what times....
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SECRETARY RICE IS INTERVIEWED BY GERMANY'S BILD ZEITUNG NEWSPAPER, AS RELEASED BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT FEBRUARY 7, 2005
QUESTION: How critical do you see these new connections between France, Germany and Russia?
RICE: As long as they are connections that are aimed at pulling Russia toward democratic values, toward the prospect of greater integration into the liberal international economy, those are all very good things. I will say that there was some time ago, particularly around the time of Iraq, a concern that it took on an anti-American cast. That was not a good thing. We were absolutely straightforward in our discussions with our German friends and our discussions with our French friends and in our discussions with the Russians in saying that that was not a good turn of events. But that Germany and France and Russia should all have good relations, that Germany and France should help in pulling Russia toward the west - that is a very good development, particularly now when we all have concerns about the course that Russia is taking, in terms of Russia's own democratic development. We need everyone pulling in the same direction to help the Russians understand that the kind of deep integration with Europe and with the transatlantic alliance that we all hope for is most especially, most importantly, based on common values.
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Rice Interview With Mediaset Channel 5 of Italy Wednesday, 9 February 2005, 1:40 pm Press Release: US State Department Interview With Luca Rigoni of Mediaset Channel 5 of Italy Secretary Condoleezza Rice Rome, Italy February 8, 2005
QUESTION: Do you fear Russia right now?
SECRETARY RICE: I certainly don't fear Russia. The United States does not and no one should. Russia is very far from the Soviet Union that we all feared. Russia is going through a difficult transition. We have been concerned about some of the internal developments in Russia and what it might mean for rule of law, for the spread of democracy throughout Russia. But we continue to talk with the Russians, to work with them. I hope we can engage the Russians more for instance in the NATO-Russia council. The EU-Russia relationship is extremely important because we do not want to see the isolation of Russia, we simply want to see a Russia that is continuing to democratize because it on the basis of common values that relationships are really very deep relationships.
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STATE DEPARTMENT BACKGROUND BRIEFING RE: FISCAL YEAR 2006 BUDGET
February 7, 2005
ATTRIBUTABLE TO SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS
LOCATION: STATE DEPARTMENT BRIEFING ROOM, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Q And my second question was on bilateral aid. Again, I don't have that booklet, but in the assistance for Eastern Europe, after the former states of the Soviet Union, the assistance to Russia had dropped fairly dramatically. Can you tell us the reason for that?
SR. STATE DEPT. OFFICIAL: Sure. Let me start with Russia. One of the things that we've done with assistance both in the Eastern European countries and the former Soviet republics is we have looked at how we could best graduate some of these countries off of foreign assistance. In other words - let's take Russia, for example, since you asked about Russia.
We have a strategy of graduating Russia off of assistance that assists in helping in that economy, and concentrating more on assistance on the democracy side in Russia. And so what we have is we have a two-tier graduation strategy for every country. Russia so happens to be a country that begins its economic graduation in '06, so the reduction that you see in the Russia program is on the economic side, or the economic assistance side, where the democracy and governance side is maintained at previous levels.
Now we do have - for these two accounts, both the Freedom Support Act and the SEED account, what you're going to see is probably a slow reduction in assistance into this area, because the purpose of the two acts that authorize this assistance, it was supposed to be kind of like short-term assistance until those countries got on their feet. A lot of these countries we've graduated. The Polands of the world, that used to get assistance, has graduated. So we're starting to graduate a lot of the countries, and this is just a natural way of doing the graduation.
