U.S. President Barack Obama’s “reset” with Russia is looking flimsy in the wake of vitriolic rhetoric from Moscow. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has had harsh words about U.S. military action against Libya. He and Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov have gone so far as to repeat Muammar Qaddafi's canards about exorbitant civilian casualties and Western “crusades.”
This rhetoric also exposes escalating tensions between the ruling “tandem”: Putin and his one-time protégé, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The latter supports the Libyan engagement.
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