A balancing act with Russia

Why precisely does Russia's internal political situation pose a challenge to the USA? I would say it is none of our business. We are not the global imperial overlord (or are we?).

If you do not live in a nation... you should naturally stay out of its politics.

Agreed?(-:

"The answer now, as it was then, is not to allow the need for cooperation to stifle support for democracy."

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/03/10/doe...
Why Doesn't Obama Call for Democracy In Saudi Arabia?

March 10, 2011

Has anyone noticed that President Obama’s newfound affection for democracy in the Middle East has not resulted in a call for an end to the autocratic regime of Saudi Arabia? We also have heard of no serious protests in Saudi Arabia -- although we will see what the planned "day of rage" for March 11 will bring --despite the fact that the country is one of the most serial abusers of human rights in the world and practices a policy of apartheid toward Saudi women. How can this be explained?

Obama’s failure to speak out against Saudi Arabia reflects a 70-year-old policy of U.S. administrations ignoring Saudi abuses against not only their own people, but American citizens. In fact, the only president to stand up to the Saudis was John Kennedy when he demanded that the kingdom abolish slavery in the early 1960s. And, contrary to the State Department Arabist views that you can’t impose our values on the Arabs, the Saudis complied.

Every other U.S. president has been afraid to confront the Saudis because they have been led to believe by diplomats more sympathetic to Arab interests than American values, that oil supplies could be jeopardized.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-3-11423...
US can out-produce Russia, Saudi Arabia in oil, gas

Support democracy in Saudi Arabia? That seems rather unlikely. We may pretend that our "allies" like the Pakistanis and the Saudis crave such western values but...

We should instead stop pretending that the world's biggest supporters of international terrorism are somehow our buddies.

Iran would be glad to sell us their oil too... and their regime is not nearly as bad as the...

neutral observer wrote:

Support democracy in Saudi Arabia? That seems rather unlikely. We may pretend that our "allies" like the Pakistanis and the Saudis crave such western values but...
We should instead stop pretending that the world's biggest supporters of international terrorism are somehow our buddies.
Iran would be glad to sell us their oil too... and their regime is not nearly as bad as the...

We have a long history of doing business with SA, but our history with Iran...

Nevermind pretending who our buddies are, why not shut up about both countries then? We need Russia too, more and more. It seems like we have done everything we can to alienate them for the past 20 years.