Aliados?

A imprensa russa já considera Sócrates um aliado de Putin, a propósito do último encontro entre os dois líderes. No The St. Petersburg Times:

Putin Finds An Ally In Portuguese PM

Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates warned against preaching to Russia about democracy, and President Vladimir Putin promised not to preach to the European Union about Polish meat at a summit next week.

Then Putin sternly told a Portuguese reporter that Russia was not the devil.

The two leaders spoke at a joint news conference in the Kremlin’s Malachite Foyer that capped a two-day visit by Socrates, whose country takes over the revolving EU presidency in July. In sharp contrast to a recent Russian-EU summit outside Samara, the atmosphere at Tuesday’s news conference was warm and friendly.

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Socrates lavished praise on Putin and warned against moralizing over common values, human rights and democracy.

When a journalist with Publico, a major Portuguese newspaper, asked whether Russia shared the bloc’s common values, Socrates said Portugal and Russia shared values that stemmed from a long history together. He said protecting human rights and democracy was important, but “these values need to be developed without preaching.”

Socrates added that no country was a paragon of democracy. “There’s nothing worse than one country trying to lecture another country,” he said.