Putin: Russia More Free Than US

As the President tours Latvia and asks Putin to apologize to the Baltic states, Putin has been forced to take the indefensible position that the Balkan nations gladly repressed themselves under the Soviet fist for decades. And, as if that's not unbelievable enough, he's decided to attack Bush by attacking American democracy:

In an interview to be aired Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes," Putin suggests Russia is more democratic than the U.S., pointing as he has before to the Electoral College, which entitled Bush to the presidency in 2000 though he didn't win the popular vote.

"Four years ago, your presidential election was decided by the court," Putin told interviewer Mike Wallace, according to a CBS News release. "The judicial system was brought into it. But we're not going to poke our noses into your democratic system because that's up to the American people."

Maybe the people at 60 Minutes will buy that, but it won't play well in Peoria.

(h/t ChiTrib)

Update: LATimes op/ed agrees that Bush needs to keep the pressure on Putin:

At the same time, Bush cannot ignore Russia's democratic backsliding and must instead use his remaining meetings with Putin, including their meeting in Moscow on Monday, to discourage his friend in the Kremlin from making Russia even more autocratic. Bush alone cannot bring back Russian independent television, reverse the carnage in Chechnya or roll back Putin's decision to appoint governors. But he can make clear that the future of Russian democracy will be a central issue in U.S.-Russian relations for the remainder of his term.