So not only has Bush managed to reignite the Cold War, but now it's the Russians who are arguing for Democracy. Much as I dislike the man and distrust his motives, Putin's arguments today are basically right: the USA is dragging us all towards a single state of Fascist dictatorship and that is NOT going to make the world a better or safer place for anyone.
"Even when dictatorship is beautifully gift-wrapped in pseudo-democratic phraseology, it has never been capable of resolving systemic problems. On the contrary, it can only make them worse," Mr Putin said in a speech delivered in New Delhi.
Although Mr Putin did not name the US, he clearly had the Bush Administration in mind when he said policies "based on the barrack-room principles of a unipolar world appear to be extremely dangerous".
Rising single-power dominance would increase the "global threats of international terrorism, organised crime and drug trafficking," the Russian leader said. Unilateralism increased "the danger of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their coming into hands of terrorists", and fed regional conflicts, he said.
"Dictatorship, the more so dictatorship in international affairs, has never solved and could not have solved such problems in the history of mankind," Mr Putin said. "Only a balanced democratic system of international law" could help ease those problems...
Mr Putin also criticised the West for double-standards on terrorism, rounding on Britain for giving asylum to Akhmed Zakayev and the US for giving refuge to Ilyas Akhmadov. Both are spokesmen for the Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, whom Russia considers a terrorist.
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