Rice sees no reason for 'excluding' Russia from G8 - More Putin ass kissing

From the former Soviet Union "expert"

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=4763697&PageNum=0

WASHINGTON, March 18 (Itar-Tass) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said she sees no circumstance in which excluding Russia from institutions in which these values (democracy) are paramount (G8 and Russia-NATO Council) is going to have a better impact on the march of events in the country.

Dr. Rice made a statement to this effect at a meeting with university students at Sydney’s town hall. The U.S. Department of State circulated a transcript of Rice’s answers to the audience on Friday.

In response to a question about her attitude to the widely spread opinion in the West about Russia’s departure from democracy Rice said Russia “is not the Soviet Union,” a country she first visited as a student back in 1979.

At the same time, Rice remarked, “I say to my Russian colleagues very often that no democracy survives without checks and balances and countervailing institutions, whether it's a strong parliament or an independent judiciary or political parties. A single strong presidency with no countervailing institutions is a danger to democracy.”