Udall has front-row seat when Putin chastises U.S.

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Published February 12, 2007 at midnight

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A Colorado congressman got a "Cold War" flashback on Saturday, when Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed harsh rhetoric against the United States.

Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, was sitting a few yards away from the podium at the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy when Putin accused the United States of "almost uncontained" use of force.

Putin said the United States had "overstepped its national borders in every way," prompting other countries to seek nuclear weapons.

Udall, who was part of a bipartisan congressional delegation at the conference, said he did not take it as a start of a new "Cold War."

But he said Putin's rhetoric is a sign that the United States needs to solve sticky issues like Iraq in order to preserve its position of strength in the world.

"The Russians have always felt they weren't fully respected ... In some ways, they're mourning the end of the Soviet Union," Udall said. "They're flush with oil and gas revenues and they want the world to know it."

"They see the United States as (being) on its heels -- if not weak, then certainly distracted in Iraq -- and facing other challenges," Udall said. "They're not loathe to throwing a few punches our way."

"The strong message is, until we can as a country ... determine the way forward in Iraq, it will not only dominate our psyche, it allows other countries a way to chip away at us," Udall said.

Among others in the congressional delegation were Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates tried to downplay Putin's rhetoric on Sunday, announcing that he had accepted Putin's invitation to visit Russia.

Still, the conference highlighted complex diplomatic, economic and economic tensions involving Russia, the United States and its allies in western Europe.

Russia reportedly is upset about U.S. plans to install new missiles in eastern Europe as part of a missile defense system. Meanwhile, Putin has talked of creating a natural gas cartel equivalent to the oil cartel OPEC.

Udall said that should prompt the United States to become more "self-reliant" when it comes to energy, so it's not subject to global pressure.

As for reviving the old tensions that marked much of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, "The Cold War is not about to be rejoined again," Udall said. "It's a totally different world."

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