Oil Wealth Colors the U.S. Push for Democracy

The White House Makes Overtures In Asia and Africa

…Bush said he talked about the “wave of democracy” with a leader who had recently overseen parliamentary elections that human rights advocates had criticized as deeply flawed. But Bush also lauded “the vision of the president in helping this world achieve what we all want, which is energy security.”

With energy prices soaring, the administration’s campaign to spread democracy has taken a detour in some countries. Azerbaijan and neighboring Kazakhstan have the kinds of human rights records that usually would deny them high-level U.S. attention. But they also have vast oil and gas reserves — and are key players in a global scramble for energy against the Russians.

Vice President Cheney, for instance, blasted Russian commitment to democracy internally and on its borders when he made a swing through Europe and Central Asia this month. But one day later he was in Astana, the Kazakh capital, where he praised the country for the progress it has made since the fall of the Soviet Union — even though by all accounts its human rights record is worse than Russia’s.

Asked about Kazakhstan’s human rights record, Cheney expressed “admiration for all that’s been accomplished here in Kazakhstan.” The State Department’s annual human rights report has decried the rule of the longtime president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, saying dissent is suppressed, journalists harassed and power concentrated in the presidency.

Washington Post