Everyone Loves a Journalistically Informed Girl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/10/AR2007021000524.html
I found this article on the Washington Post website. The article is about a speech given by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a conference in Munich Saturday. Putin harshly criticized the U.S. for its unilateral military approach in the Middle East and said “the United States has overstepped its national borders in everyway.� Putin criticized NATO for placing military forces on Russia’s borders and expressed disapproval for the U.S.’s desire to put antimissile systems in Eastern Europe. He also defended Russia’s arms sale to Iran and said, “we don’t want Iran to feel cornered.� Some U.S. politicians in attendance criticized Putin for his comments as did the White House. Spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement, “we are surprised and disappointed with President Putin’s comments.� Putin always disapproved of the U.S.’s action in Iraq and drew parallels to the Cold War in his speech. Many U.S. politicians weighed in on the speech, but when asked to comment, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates who attended the Munich conference just “smiled and shook his head.�
The challenge for this article is explaining all the different motivations behind the comments made by Putin. The issue of Iraq is multifaceted enough, but the relationship between the U.S. and Russia is even more complex. It is a challenge for the writer to report on all the opinions and factors involved in this issue without going over the reader’s head. Someone that has no background in history at all may find this article a bit confusing, but the author did a good job of sticking to the matters being discussed now with minimal background information.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/world/europe/11munich.html?pagewanted=1
I also read a New York Times article on this subject on the website. This article gave much more detail about what Putin actually said in his speech. It also gave a broader perspective on what the international community thought of Putin’s comments. The article included that the EU is also facing tensions with Russia over a dispute on natural gas prices and the independence of Kosovo. This article quoted German Chancellor Angela Merkel at length on Europe’s relationship with Russia.
The Washington Post article focused more on the reaction of the United States to Putin’s speech while the Times article gave a more global sense of what is going on. My vote is for the Times article.