Remember Gary Kasparov's op-ed in the Journal a few weeks back--the one where he said the "thought of [McCain] in the White House strikes fear into authoritarian leaders everywhere"? Kasparov also made a big deal in that piece of the need to eject Russia from the G-8. He wrote:
Russia was finally mentioned in one of the seemingly endless U.S. presidential primary debates. Mrs. Clinton, prompted by the moderator, managed to stutter out something resembling "Medvedev" when asked for the next Russian president's name during a debate in Cleveland....
Unfortunately, it was only a trivia question that served to show how far off the American radar Russia is. I would have been delighted to hear the answers to the follow up, "will you, as president, push for the removal of Russia from the G-7 since you have just said it is no longer a democratic nation?"
If the next U.S. president fails to address that question, any attempts to speak on behalf of global democracy will be hollow. In that case, for many of us around the world, change will be no change at all.
In his foreign policy speech yesterday, McCain said:
We should start by ensuring that the G-8, the group of eight highly industrialized states, becomes again a club of leading market democracies: it should include Brazil and India but exclude Russia. Rather than tolerate Russia's nuclear blackmail or cyber attacks, Western nations should make clear that the solidarity of NATO, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, is indivisible and that the organization's doors remain open to all democracies committed to the defense of freedom.
If there was any doubt that Kasparov, something of a hero of the America left for his anti-Bush comments over the last few years (see his recent interview with Bill Maher), favors McCain...yesterday's speech should put the matter to rest.
