Diplomacy not

Well, if Condi really wanted to royally screw up relations with Russia, she's done it now:

MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Russian human rights activists on Saturday she wanted to help them build institutions to protect people from the 'arbitrary power of the state'.

"I think that there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin," she later told reporters.

These people are a tiny, tiny minority in Russia which overwhelmingly supports Putin, notwithstanding all his faults. They are no threat to Putin whatsoever, so offering them support makes no earthly sense in terms of improving conditions in Russia, but it sure will get Putin mad -- just as it would piss Bush off immensely if Putin came over here and offered to support the netroots movement.

With this kind of diplomacy we're going to end up in war after war.