First upgrade, then reset

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57597737/condoleezza-rice-russian-asylum-for-snowden-is-a-slap-in-the-face-to-u.s./

In her interview to CBS a few days ago Condoleezza Rice called Russia’s decision to grant NSA leaker Edward Snowden asylum a “slap in the face to the US”. She described the US-Russian relationship as “really terrible” but she doesn’t think it’s the Cold War. She said, “The Russia of today is a diminished power. It still has nuclear weapons. It still has a security council veto. But it is, on any given day, the 14th, 15th or 16th largest economy in the world, in a world in which economic power matters."

I’m not saying that economic power doesn’t matter at all in international relations but if a certain country doesn’t do that great economically it shouldn’t be a reason to stop dealing with it. It just looks like an excuse similar to excuses one Russian clown called Onishchenko likes to offer. If it was a slap why not admit it at the top level and it’s exactly what the presidents could discuss at the one on one meeting in Moscow. If fact it’s a great opportunity to address some double-standard issues in the policies of both governments.

Contrary to what C. Rice said, Russia and the US, at least Russian and American people, have a lot of “overlapping interests”. C. Rice also pointed out, “I don't think that you sacrifice very much by saying to Putin in Russia, look, we are not going to sacrifice our interests trying to court you." I don’t know about Putin but I don’t think Russia needs any sacrifice or any courtship on the part of the US. What we need is a way to improve our relationship. Exchange of unfriendly actions followed by cold war era rhetoric increases mistrust and hostility between two peoples. If the authorities have failed to “reset” bi-lateral relations it might mean they run incompatible operating systems. I am sure that it is NOT in the interests of the two nations at the “grassroot” level to give up on working together toward the better future. Our two nations (I’m not talking about the governments now) have a mission to accomplish. They have responsibilities.

As for the “reset”, we sure need to take into consideration economic power. Someone observed that countries with a large protestant population seem to have a better standard of living. What is it? Protestant work ethics?

Russia has been losing lots and lots of her best people and currently is not what she used to be. However the “hardware” still has a great capacity and it needs upgraded software to power it. I still believe Russia doesn’t have to acquire an operating system from outside. She has her own matrix built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. So why don’t we power it up?