Thursday, December 2, 2010

WikiLeaks US embassy cables: live updates

http://watchingyouwatchingyme-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2010/12/larry-king-transcript-on-wikileaks.html

TRANSCRIPT IN FULL: Larry King Live on WIKILEAKS



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Vladimir Putin and WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks cables show US diplomats believe Russia is 'a corrupt, autocratic kleptocracy centred on the pre-eminent leadership' of the prime minister, Vladimir Putin Photograph: Alexei Nikolsky/AP

8.06am: Jay Rosen, professor of journalism at New York University, thinks aloud about WikiLeaks. He speaks very slowly for a New Yorker but he has some interesting things to say about WikiLeaks as a stateless news organisation.

Live blog: Twitter
7.53am: The Chinese government seems to be upping the anti-WikiLeaks rhetoric. Ananth Krishnan, the Beijing correspondent of the Hindu, just tweeted this:
7.31am: In his CNN interview Putin used the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defence against WikiLeaks. Like the Iranian president, Putin suggested that the contents of the cables are part of deliberate ploy to undermine his country.
The Russian news site RIA Novosti has a full transcript of the exchange between Larry King and Putin. Here's the extract on WikiLeaks:
Larry King: What do you think of the leak of military and diplomatic correspondence by the WikiLeaks group?
Vladimir Putin: Some experts believe that somebody is deliberately "inflating" WikiLeaks. Building up the site's authority in order to use it to further their political ends. That is one possible theory, and this is the opinion of experts, which has some currency in our country too. I think that if this is not the case, it shows that the diplomatic service should be more careful with its documents. Such leaks have happened before, in the previous era. I don't see it as any kind of catastrophe.
Larry King: What about the statement by the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates that Russian democracy has disappeared and that the government is being run by the security services? What is your response to the American secretary of defence's statement?
Vladimir Putin: I am personally acquainted with Mr Gates, I have met him on several occasions. I think he is a very nice man and not a bad specialist. But Mr Gates, of course, was one of the leaders of the US Central Intelligence Agency and today he is defence secretary. If he also happens to be America's leading expert on democracy, I congratulate you.
Larry King: So he is wrong in saying that your country is being run by secret security services?
Vladimir Putin: He is profoundly wrong. Our country is run by the people of the Russian Federation through legitimately elected bodies of power and administration: through representative bodies (the parliament) and executive bodies (the president and the government of the Russian Federation).
As for democracy, this is a long-running argument we have been having with our American colleagues. I would like to recall that twice in the history of the United States the presidential candidate who ultimately became president of the United States won more votes in the electoral college but lost the popular vote. What's democratic about that?
And when we tell our American colleagues that there are systemic problems in this sphere we hear, "Don't poke your noses into our affairs. This is how things work here and this is the way it is going to be." We are not butting in, but I would also like to advise our colleagues not to poke their noses into our affairs. This is the sovereign choice of the Russian people. The Russian people unequivocally backed democracy in the early 90s. They will not be swayed from this path. No one should have any doubts on that score. This is in Russia's own interests. And we will definitely continue along this path.
The issue Mr Gates raised in the course of this diplomatic correspondence is clearly related to his desire to bring some pressure to bear on the allies over concrete issues. There are many such issues. Russia is seen as deserving this pressure because it is undemocratic: these measures have to be taken because there is no democracy there. We have heard this a thousand times. We have stopped paying attention to it. But it is still being used as an instrument of US foreign policy. I think this is an erroneous approach to take in the building of relations with the Russian Federation.
Larry King: How would you describe your relationship with President Medvedev? As you know, there are some who say that he is Robin and you are Batman, to refer to those all-American heroes. Or in fact, to get it straight, that you are Batman and he is Robin.
Vladimir Putin: Well, you know when Mr Medvedev and I were considering how to structure our relations and how to run the election campaign, the 2008 presidential election campaign, we were very well aware that many would try to create a split in our common approach to the building of the Russian state and the development of our economy. Because our interaction is a considerable factor in the country's domestic policy. But it did not occur to us that it would be done in such an impudent, brazen and aggressive fashion.
Such claims of course are aimed at insulting one of us, at damaging our sense of pride and at provoking us into taking steps that would destroy our effective interaction in running the country. I have to tell you that we have already grown used to this. I urge all those who are engaged in such attempts to calm down.
7.21am: It's Russia day on the WikiLeaks front. Our Moscow correspondent Luke Harding single-handedly wrote five of the Guardian's pages today.
Here's how he kicks off the coverage:
Russia is a corrupt, autocratic kleptocracy centred on the leadership of Vladimir Putin, in which officials, oligarchs and organised crime are bound together to create a "virtual mafia state", according to leaked secret diplomatic cables that provide a damning American assessment of its erstwhile rival superpower.
The latest batch of leaked cables also reveals:
• Alexander Litvinenko murder 'probably had Putin's OK.' Senior US diplomat doubted former KGB agent could have been poisoned without Russian president's approval.
• Russian government 'using mafia for its dirty work.' The Kremlin relies on criminals and rewards them with political patronage, while top officials collect bribes 'like a personal taxation system'.
• US cables claim Russia armed Georgian separatists. Grad missiles were given to rebels in South Ossetia and Abkhazia in a Russian campaign to undermine Georgia, the dispatches claim.
• Britain and America colluded to allow US bases to sidestep a ban on cluster bombs.
Officials concealed from parliament how the US is allowed to bring weapons on to British soil.
• The former foreign secretary David Miliband focused on the civil war in Sri Lankan war 'to win votes'. A leaked May 2009 cable from the US embassy in London explained his intense focus on the plight of the country's Tamils in terms of UK electoral geography.
The fallout from the leaks continues to reverberate.
• Amazon has cut adrift the WikiLeaks website after US political pressure.
• The British police are continuing to look for the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, over sexual assault allegations made against him in Sweden.
• There have been calls for Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, to give evidence to a parliamentary inquiry after the Conservatives claimed he sided with them during the talks leading to the formation of the coalition government.
• You can follow all of yesterday's disclosures and reaction on Wednesday's live blog. And for the full coverage go to our US embassy cables page.

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