Russian President Putin decided to ramp up rhetoric Thursday with complaints about NATO and the US creating an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe. Here’s a good summary of the current situation written by the BBC. The decision to renege on the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty is his to make and it’s unfortunate that things have evolved to the point where the US feels the need to do what it is doing and for Putin to respond. This is not a step forward to a better world. But then again…we have our own history with missiles in neighboring countries (Cuba) so it shouldn’t be too tough to understand why he might feel threatened. By the way, I am not a fan of Putin, but then again, he is not my President. I can only imagine how many people in Russia and much of the rest of the world don’t care for President Bush - so fair is fair.

Over the past several months there have been several odd comments from Putin about the US bringing back the Cold War. However, none of the comments were more revealing to me than this one uttered today:

“There is a growth in the flow of money from abroad for direct interference in our internal affairs,” he said. “There are those who, skillfully using pseudo-democratic rhetoric, would like to return to the recent past — some to loot the country’s national riches, to rob the people and the state; others to strip us of economic and political independence.”

Democracy interfering with politics - think about that. For all their advancements towards democracy and capitalism, something about that comment really got me. In the US (and I guess most democratic and capitalistic societies) we view the threat of politics invading capitalism and eroding democracy as a primary concern. For the leader of Russia, it appears that politics is supreme. I am not saying his view is wrong. It’s different. One of the great failings of our country in my opinion is our desire to hold other countries, cultures, economies, etc. to our standards. That habit has contributed to the tensions we are battling today and I fear it will continue.

Russia is a significant economic power with great natural resources and a wealth of well-educated and intellectually-talented people. All of which are wonderful reasons to invest there and I am sure Russians benefited from the capital injections and technology transfers that were made during their initial transition. Now that oil revenues are high and the economy is standing well on its own, Russia (or at least Putin) doesn’t think they need it anymore. Comments like the one I have highlighted should be taken as a warning sign for foreign investment in Russia. And along with that threat comes the risk of instability in the Russian markets. But this isn’t just about Russia, we have our own bunch of politicians throwing around protectionist ideas. In the previous Cold War, both sides made mistakes. We are doing it again.