PUTIN’S MONROE DOCTRINE

All seemed pleasant recently between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin as they rode in a Russian automobile together and stood side by side in Tbilisi, Georgia, before probably the greatest crowd the ancient city had ever seen. That was until President Bush praised Georgia’s democracy and offered to assist the country deal with breakaway regions thought to be backed by Russia.

American advice on how Russia should deal with its newly independent neighbors is part of Mr. Bush’s mission of spreading freedom throughout the world. (Freedom and democracy are relative terms in Georgia. Human Rights Watch says torture is still widely used in its criminal justice system.) While the American president enjoyed an enthusiastic welcome in Latvia and Georgia, he may well have aroused resentment and anxiety in Moscow. Whatever views Americans may have of those Russian neighbors, Moscow regards them as within the Russian sphere of influence.

Consider how Americans might react if Mr. Putin traveled to Canada or Mexico and warned Washington about its relations with them. The United States has long resisted any sign of intrusion in the entire Western Hemisphere under its Monroe Doctrine.

A BBC News historical summary reports that many Russian officials,

still smarting over the collapse of the Soviet Union, suspect that Washington has fomented bloodless or “velvet” revolutions that have undermined Moscow’s influence in nearby former parts of the Soviet empire.

Democratic, pro-Western leaders took over from entrenched Soviet-era officials. Georgia’s 2003 Rose Revolution was one of those. The current president, Mikhail Saakashvili, burst into the parliament carrying a long-stemmed red rose and took power after the veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister, had resigned and fled. Similar peaceful revolutions followed in Ukraine (December 2004) and Kyrgyzstan (March 2005).

The BBC called Mr. Bush’s remark about respect for Georgia’s sovereignty a veiled criticism of Russia, which Georgia accuses of backing separatists in its breakaway regions of South Osama and Abkhazia.

What went on in Tbilisi, vital as it may seem to the Georgians, could have some effect on important issues between Moscow and Washington. These include Russia’s 10,000 armed nuclear warheads and its hoard of unsecured nuclear bomb fuel. Also the role Russia could play in persuading Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program. These matters did not come up, at least publicly, in the Bush visit to Moscow.

They no doubt will in the future.