Romney ends tour with swipe at Russia

Posted By on July 31, 2012

WHITE House contender Mitt Romney has wrapped up a gaffe-prone tour in Poland with a swipe about the state of freedom in Russia - and a fresh blunder by an aide who told journalists to "kiss my ass".

On his first visit behind the old Iron Curtain, the Republican challenger vowed his commitment to close ties with Poland, which still has a testy relationship with Moscow more than two decades after the fall of communism.

Hailing his hosts as "an example and defender of freedom", Mr Romney said: "In Russia, once-promising advances toward a free and open society have faltered."

Earlier this month, Mr Romney criticised President Barack Obama's administration for its "abandonment of friends" in a region still wary of Russia - a country he once described as America's "number one geopolitical foe".

Poland, a country of 38 million which made a peaceful, if difficult, transition from communism in 1989, is now an economically flourishing pillar of the EU and NATO and has supplied troops for the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Poland has no greater friend and ally than the people of the United States," said Mr Romney. "I believe it is critical to stand by those who have stood by America... and it is with solidarity that America and Poland face the future."

But the final leg of the three-stop tour, aimed at burnishing Mr Romney's foreign policy credentials ahead of the November presidential election, was marred by a verbal attack on journalists by one of his top aides.

His spokesman Rick Gorka lost his cool when journalists pressed Mr Romney during a solemn visit to a World War II memorial in Warsaw over the gaffes that have plagued him during his visits to Israel and Britain.

Mr Gorka told the journalists to "kiss my ass" and to "shove it" as they chased Mr Romney for answers, before calling them half an hour later to apologise.

Some members of the local press also complained bitterly about a lack of access to Mr Romney during his visit.

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Romney ends tour with swipe at Russia

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