Will Bratislava be Yalta II?

RAKOW, Poland -- Sixty years ago this month, in the country just east of Poland, President Franklin Roosevelt met with Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference. At the summit in what is now Ukraine, Roosevelt got Stalin to promise democratic elections in Eastern European nations but privately did little to ensure the Russians would carry out the commitment. Just two years earlier, Roosevelt promised to allow such a deal as long as Stalin didn't mention it publicly -- so FDR could win the Polish vote in the 1944 election. \nThe willing appeasement sealed Eastern Europe's fate, ensuring that Moscow's dictatorial friends would oppress 80 million people for half a century. Under the rule of the hammer and sickle, the entire region sank into a political depression, pockmarked by communist-backed massacres in such cities as Gdansk, Budapest and Prague.\nToday, in the country just south of here, President Bush meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The summit in Bratislava, Slovakia, presents a strikingly similar situation to that at Yalta. Bush has two choices: He could take FDR's route by sacrificing the freedom of the Russian people for a cordial relationship and possibly one or two harsher Kremlin words on Iranian nuclear development, or he could fulfill the goals he set forth in his inaugural address by strongly confronting Putin on his authoritarian conduct.\nWhile far from Stalin's USSR, no one considers today's Russia a true democracy. Independent news media barely exist in Russia; Moscow turned the last non-state-controlled TV news station into an all-sports channel. Putin recently canceled the independent appointment of local governors, allowing him to appoint his personal strongmen across the entire nation. The Kremlin ensures only its candidates have access to media and brutally harasses political opponents. One of Putin's most active opponents, oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, now sits in jail on trumped-up charges. Freedom House, the world's most respected political-rights watchdog group, downgraded its classification of Russia this year from "partly free" to "not free." \nNot satisfied with curbing liberties in his own country, Putin has exported his "managed democracy" abroad by propping up vicious thugs in such states as Belarus and Turkmenistan and in parts of Moldova and Georgia. The Polish Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper reported Tuesday that Belarussian opposition leaders must meet in Ukraine because they fear arrest or worse in their own country. In Chechnya, Putin's destruction of even those Chechens who wish to compromise with Moscow has helped create a breeding ground for Islamic fundamentalists linked to al-Qaida.\nBoth U.S. presidents greatly misunderstood their Russian counterparts. Roosevelt saw Stalin as a sort of big-city party boss -- a rough guy who used unorthodox measures but would do the right thing if asked politely. Bush, in a similar vein, became very close to Putin in the early years of the latter's first term. He even invited the Russian president to his Crawford, Texas, ranch. After a meeting in Slovenia, Bush famously said that he looked into the Russian president's eyes and found a trustworthy partner.\nUnfortunately for the world at large, neither of these Russian leaders are (or were) good guys. Frankly, how well George and Vladimir get along matters little to the Russian people when government forces, terrorists and criminal organizations threaten their lives. If the Kremlin won't treat its own people well, how can we expect it to truly pursue our interests outside of their country?\nIf Bush chooses to value the welfare of millions above friendly relations, he should loudly and publicly condemn the Putin dictatorship during the Bratislava summit. Democrats who are working for liberal reform in Russia -- individuals such as world chess champion Gary Kasparov -- need to hear that the most powerful country in the world stands strongly behind them.