With the publication of their new book "Russia's Wrong Direction, What the United States Can and Should Do," former presidential candidates John Edwards (Democrat) and Jack Kemp (Republican) have fired yet another bipartisan salvo at the Neo-Soviet Union. Russia has alienated every corner of American society and provoked Cold War II, the one it can't possibly survive, out of pure hubris and classic Russian ignorance. Apres moi le deluge, says Putin.

Sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, the Edwards-Kemp task force states:

President Putin is presiding over the rollback of Russian democracy. The political balance sheet of the past five years is extremely negative. The practices and institutions that have developed over this period have become far less open, pluralistic, subject to the rule of law, and vulnerable to the criticism and counterbalancing of a vigorous opposition or independent media. The G8 summit may be a watershed on many of these issues--Iran and energy in particular. It’s a real opportunity to lock in more helpful Russian policies. But if we don’t see progress, people are going to ask what Russia is doing in the G8 in the first place.

• De-democratization: The report finds that Russian political institutions are becoming “corrupt and brittle.” As a result, “Russia’s capacity to address security concerns of fundamental importance to the United States and its allies is reduced. And many kinds of cooperation--from securing nuclear materials to intelligence sharing--are undermined.”
• Energy supplies: “Russia has used energy exports as a foreign policy weapon: intervening in Ukraine’s politics, putting pressure on its foreign policy choices, and curtailing supplies to the rest of Europe. The reassertion of government control over the Russian energy sector increases the risk this weapon will be used again.”
• The war on terror: The Task Force finds “a seeming Russian effort to curtail U.S. and NATO military access to Central Asian bases,” a sign that Russia is retreating from the idea that “success in Afghanistan serves a common interest.”
• Russiahosting the G8: “A country that has in the space of a single year supported massive fraud in the elections of its largest European neighbor and then punished it for voting wrong by turning off its gas supply has to be at least on informal probation at a meeting of the world’s industrial democracies.”