Romney's GOP convention remarks rub Russia the wrong way

Mitt Romney has raised hackles in Russia, not for the first time, with a tough set of convention remarks that suggest the US can expect a new cold war if he's elected in November.

Mr. Romney, who previously roiled Russians by declaring that Russia is "our number one geopolitical foe" – a remark he later walked back a bit – caused another outbreak of mass annoyance in Moscow today, with his insistence that under a Romney presidency the US will not be as indulgent toward Russia as President Obama has been.

Mr. Obama "abandoned our friends in Poland by walking away from our missile defense commitments, but is eager to give Russia's President Putin the flexibility he desires, after the election," Romney said, referring to to an embarrassing open mic conversation with then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in which Obama asked the Russians to downplay criticism of US missile defense plans until after November.

"Under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty, and Mr. Putin will see a little less flexibility and more backbone," he added.

It wasn't much, but it was enough to set the Russian media to warning of a new cold war if Romney wins in November. "Once again Russia's on America's list of adversaries," shouted Thursday's headline in the independent Moscow daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta. The online newspaper Pravda.ru, which also publishes in English, warned that "Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan promise Russia Republican hell...  the official Republican candidates for president and vice-president support the radicalization of the country's foreign policies, particularly about the relations with Russia."

And a report issued Thursday by the international banking conglomerate Citi Inc. suggested that a Romney victory could drive Russia's stock market down by as much as 10 percent. "If Obama is concerned about restraining those domestic forces which would unleash cold war rhetoric, then it appears that Romney would encourage this process," with dire implications for Russian investment, the report said.

'Campaign sloganeering'

But Russian foreign policy specialists say there's probably less to Romney's rhetoric than meets the ear.

"I think this is largely campaign sloganeering," says Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, a leading Moscow foreign policy journal.

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