You're reading: Romney chides Russia on last leg of bumpy foreign tour

WARSAW - U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney held up Poland's transition from Communism to democracy as an example for the rest of the world while saying on Tuesday that Russia had faltered on the path to freedom.

Romney was speaking in the Polish capital at the end of a
three-country foreign tour that also took him to Britain and
Israel. The trip was supposed to show voters back home that the
Republican could serve on the world stage just as well as
President Barack Obama, but it has been marked by gaffes and
missteps.

In a speech in the library of Warsaw University, Romney
evoked Poland’s struggles two decades ago to bring down the Iron
Curtain and praised its efforts s i nce then to embrace small
government and a market economy – the same model he says is
needed to revive spluttering U.S. growth.

“In the 1980s, when other nations doubted that political
tyranny could ever be faced down or overcome, the answer was,
‘Look to Poland’,” Romney said. “And today, as some wonder about
the way forward out of economic recession and fiscal crisis, the
answer is to ‘Look to Poland’ once again.”

Romney’s comments on Russia will resonate in Poland, which
has a history of occupation by its eastern neighbour and has
looked to the United States as a friendly counterweight to the
Kremlin’s influence.

“Unfortunately, there are parts of the world today where the
desire to be free is met with brutal oppression,” Romney said,
listing the Moscow-allied state of Belarus, the Syrian
leadership, and Venezuela’s leader Hugo Chavez.

“And in Russia, once-promising advances toward a free and
open society have faltered,” he said.

Romney has previously said that Russia is “without question
our No. 1 geopolitical foe”.

STANDING BY ALLIES

Romney has pledged not to criticise his Democratic rival for
the presidency from foreign soil, but his comments in Poland –
as during the Israel leg of his tour – appeared designed to
highlight differences in the candidates’ approach to foreign
policy.

Obama has put emphasis on a “re-set” in the previously
fraught relations with the Kremlin. Some in Poland felt
Washington was overlooking its long-standing alliance with
Warsaw for the sake of a better relationship with Russia.

Alluding to the trade union movement Solidarity, which
helped topple Communist rule, Romney said: “I believe it is
critical to stand by those who have stood by America. Solidarity
was a great movement that freed a nation. And it is with
solidarity that America and Poland face the future.”

Solidarity on Monday distanced itself from Romney’s visit to
Poland, saying he had supported attacks on unions in his own
country.

Romney has run a fairly smooth campaign in the United States
by sticking closely to a message that the U.S. economy under
Obama has faltered with 8.2 percent unemployment.

Abroad, however, he has suffered a series of problems that
drew criticism from the Obama camp that he was not ready to be
U.S. commander in chief.

On the first leg of his trip, in London, the former governor
of the U.S. state of Massachusetts drew howls of derision from
the British press after questioning whether the city was ready
to host the Olympics.

On the next stopover in Israel, he angered Palestinian
leaders by calling Jerusalem the Israeli capital and saying
cultural differences made Israel more successful economically
than the Palestinians.

In Poland on Tuesday, he studiously avoided making any
off-the-cuff comments to the media. Romney stuck closely to his
message, going from meeting to meeting with Polish officials and
thanking them for Polish contributions to the U.S.-led war
efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier, reporters frustrated at a lack of access to him during
this trip shouted questions about his missteps.

“Governor Romney, are you concerned about some of the
mishaps on your trip?” shouted one.

“Governor Romney do you have a statement for the
Palestinians?” shouted another.

Romney ignored the questions and strode back to his
motorcade vehicle as an aide admonished members of the press.
“Shove it,” the aide, Rick Gorka, told reporters.