Reply #78: He kicked and screamed at the time:

[struggle4progress]

No grounds for Iraq attack: Putin
September 8, 2002 Posted: 9:34 PM EDT (0134 GMT)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has told British Prime Minister Tony Blair Friday that he doubts there are any grounds for using force against Iraq.
Putin's comments come as U.S. President Bush launches a concerted effort to push his case internationally for toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, with strong backing from Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair.
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http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/09/06/blair.iraq/

Iraq: Can Bush Win Putin Over?
Thursday, Sep. 26, 2002
Russia is playing hard to get, says TIME Moscow bureau chief Paul Quinn-Judge. Moscow's ideal price for backing Washington at the UN would be a green light to invade Georgia.
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http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,355411,00.html

Putin to rally Europeans on Iraq
Sunday, 9 February, 2003, 11:38 GMT
Russian President Vladimir Putin is on a whirlwind tour of Europe to drum up opposition to a possible US-led attack on Iraq.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2741617.stm

Putin Turns on US Over War in Iraq
Reuters March 20, 2003
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in some of the harshest words by a world leader so far over the U.S. attack on Iraq on Thursday, said the war was unjustified and must end quickly. Russia had joined France, Germany and China in demanding that United Nations arms inspectors continue their search for banned weapons in Iraq before the countries would back any hostilities.
"This military action is unjustified...there has been no answer to the main question which is: are there weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and, if so, which ones," a grim-faced Putin told Russia's top ministers in the Kremlin.
"Military action...is a big political error,"he said in nationally-televised remarks, adding it flouted world opinion and international law. Iraq has denied having weapons of mass destruction.
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http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/statement/2003/0320putinturns.htm

Iraq war unjustified: Putin
Thursday, 18 December , 2003, 20:08
Cautioning the United States against "imperial ambitions", Russian President Putin today said the US-led invasion of Iraq bypassing the UN Security Council was unjustified.
"Anything done without the sanction of the UN Security Council, cannot be accepted as just and justified," Putin said in an annual live televised question-answer session, adding "this is my very soft judgement."
Putin said: "In all the periods of the history of mankind the countries with imperial ambitions always suffered from a number of problems, which softly speaking, complicated their situation - these were their sense of invulnerability, sense of greatness and sense of infallibility.
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http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13339861