Munich reprimand

Vladimir Putin showed in Germany a storm and onslaught Vladimir Putin before a visit to the Middle East still changed his plans and took part in the Munich Security Conference. As the newspaper predicted, his speech, dedicated to military-strategic issues and relations with NATO, became programmatic for Russia's foreign policy. Despite the tough tone of the president, Russian conference participants appreciated its results quite positively: the US Minister of Defense even stated on the sidelines that his own speech before the congressmen in which the anti -Russian statements were made, was “incorrectly interpreted”.

Speaking on February 10 before the conference participants, the Russian president was emphasized and cold -blooded. Those who were intended for his speech (primarily the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the Bundescantler Angela Merkel) also kept calm, but everyone perfectly understood what was behind the words of the Russian president: Russia is moving from passive resistance to the unipolar world to active - through the increase in military potential and the construction of military -political blocs.

The Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, speaking last week in the State Duma, has already told about the military potential. Recall that by 2012 it is planned to radically re -equip the armed forces by 45%, including in the field of strategic systems. And on Saturday, Vladimir Putin made it clear what military -political unions could be: "The total GDP of India and China in parity purchasing power is already larger than that of the United States of America. And calculated on the same principle of GDP of the Brik -Brazil, India and China - exceeds the aggregate GDP of the European Union. And, according to experts, in the observant historical prospects this The gap will only increase.

Old grievances

Hard criticism of a model of a single -polar world is a topic that Putin devoted to most of his speech. But he talked a lot about other key moments -

On the reduction of strategic weapons, space, pro. In terms of disarmament, according to Putin, “obvious stagnation” is observed, but Russia intends to strictly fulfill the obligations stipulated by the contract to reduce nuclear potentials on strategic media to 1.7-2.2 thousand nuclear ammunition by December 31, 2012.

Speaking about the militarization of the cosmos and the most painful question for Russia - the placement near its borders of the pro, Vladimir Putin reminded of the old grievances: “What happened to those assurances that were given by Western partners after the dissolution of the Warsaw Treaty? Where is these statements now? Even no one remembers them. But I will allow myself to remind me in this audience, which would be said. I would like to give a quote from the performance of the general The secretary of Mr. Werner in Brussels on May 17, 1990, he then said: "The very fact that we are ready to not place the NATO troops outside the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, gives the Soviet Union solid guarantees of security?" The remaining participants in the conference kept ice silence.

The military theme has pushed into the background traditional energy security issues for recent years. Vladimir Putin spoke about them at the end of his speech: “According to various estimates, up to 26% of oil production in Russia falls on foreign capital. Try to give me an example of such a wide presence of Russian business in key sectors of the economy of Western states. There are no such examples!”

Conference Must Go on

Most Western observers regarded Putin's performance in Munich as the most tough since the Cold War. Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg even said: "We must thank President Putin, who not only took care of the publicity of this conference well, but also clearly and convincingly showed why NATO should expand."

All yesterday, participants in the Munich conference discussed the speech of the Russian president. But, despite the powerful resonance in the world, after leaving on Saturday evening, Vladimir Putin, the conference was quite calm. According to the head of the Security Safety Committee, Viktor Ozerov, on Sunday, "such an anti -Russian mood as on Saturday was no longer there." Senator John McCain only said that Russia should perceive the values of Western democracy as they are. Russian participants asked Robert Gates what he had in mind when speaking in Congress. He replied that his words (the United States should build up military power, because "it is not known what to expect from countries like Russia", see the "newspaper" from February 9-11) was incorrectly interpreted: he had in mind certain problems associated with the trade in weapons and energy security, but "there may be no talk of preparing for the war." There are no prerequisites for the Cold War, the US Secretary of Defense said.

After the storm

In Russia, these conciliatory words are evaluated as tricks. For example, Dmitry Danilov from the Institute of European countries of the Russian Academy of Sciences believes: “Russia needs to update its foreign policy. It is necessary to clearly imagine that the partnership of Russia and NATO does not solve the main problem - the creation of mutual deterrence structures. Allies are needed in Europe to influence the United States. ” So far, they are not there, but there is still no need to make sudden movements, since changes in foreign policy are possible with the change of president in the United States.

What, besides hard rhetoric, Russia can contrast the United States and NATO? The chief researcher of IMEMO RAS, General Vladimir Dvorkin, believes that almost nothing: "Russia's military potential is growing, but it is not comparable with the western one, and the technological gap is constantly increasing." According to Dvorkin, Putin’s speech only expresses dissatisfaction with the fact that NATO acts without consulting with the Kremlin, and under these conditions a “catching up model” of the development of the armed forces is insolvent: you need to focus on the modernization of high -precision weapons integrated with space intelligence systems.

The performance of Vladimir Putin. Selected places. Munich, February 10, 2007.
International Conference on Security Policy

- A comprehensive, indivisible nature of security is expressed in the basic principle: everyone's safety is the safety of everyone. As Franklin Roosevelt said in the early days of the flaming World War II, "wherever the world is violated, the world is everywhere in danger and under threat."

- What is a single -sex world? No matter how this term decorates, it ... means only one thing: this is one center of power, one center of power, one center of decision -making. This is the world of one owner, one sovereign. And this is ultimately destructive not only for everyone who is within the framework of this system, but also for the sovereign himself, because it destroys it from the inside ...

And this has nothing to do, of course, with democracy. Russia - us - constantly teach democracies. But those who teach us for some reason themselves do not really want to study.

- For the modern world, a single-polar model is not only unacceptable, but generally impossible ... The model is non-working, since it is based on and cannot be the moral and moral base of modern civilization.

- We see more and more neglect of the fundamental principles of international law. Moreover, individual norms, yes, in fact, almost the entire system of the law of one state (first of all, of course, the United States) crossed its national boundaries in all areas: in economics, and in politics, and in the humanitarian sphere, is imposed on other states. Well, who will like it?

- The dominance of the force factor inevitably fuels the craving of a number of countries to possess weapons of mass destruction.

- I am convinced that the only mechanism for making decisions on the use of military force as the last argument can only be the UN charter ... And it is not necessary to replace the organization of the United Nations either NATO or the European Union.

- Star wars are no longer fantasy, but reality. Back in the mid-80s, our American partners in practice intercept their own satellite.

The militarization of space, according to Russia, can provoke the consequences unpredictable for the world community - no less than the beginning of the nuclear era ...

We have prepared a draft agreement on preventing the placement of weapons in outer space. Let's work on it together.

- They cannot but disturb the plans for the deployment of elements of the PK system in Europe. Who needs another round of weapons inevitable in this case? I doubt deeply that the Europeans themselves.

- None of the so -called “problematic” countries has a missile weapon that really threatening Europe. And in the foreseeable perspective ... and is not even foreseen. Yes, and a hypothetical launch, for example, the North Korean missile through the United States through Western Europe - this clearly contradicts the laws of ballistics. As they say in Russia, it is like reaching the left ear with your right hand.

- Being here, in Germany, I cannot but mention the crisis state of the Treaty on ordinary armed forces in Europe ...

Seven years have passed, and only four states ratified this document, including the Russian Federation.

NATO countries openly stated that they did not ratify the contract ... until Russia has derived its bases from Georgia and Moldova.

Our troops are withdrawn from Georgia, and even in an accelerated manner ... In Moldova, there remains a group of one and a half thousand military personnel who perform peacekeeping functions and protect warehouses with ammunition that remained from the time of the USSR.

But what happens at the same time? In Bulgaria and Romania, the so -called light American advanced bases of five thousand bayonets in each appear. It turns out that NATO puts forward his advanced forces to our state borders, and we, strictly fulfilling the contract, do not respond to these actions in any way.

- Russia is a country with a more than a thousand -year history, and almost always it used a privilege to pursue an independent foreign policy.

We are not going to change this tradition today.

"Moscow claims the role of the chief player." Foreign media - about the performance of Vladimir Putin in Munich

The New York Times ( USA ):

The President of Russia accused the US authorities of provoking a new round of nuclear arms race by deploying anti-missile systems, undermining international institutions and destabilizing the situation in the Middle East due to inept actions during the Iraqi war. Vladimir Putin threw aside diplomacy to submit a long list of claims related to the dominance of the United States in global policy. This list includes many questions that aroused an aggravation of relations between the Kremlin and the White House for all seven years of Putin’s stay in power.

Among the issues raised by the Russian President, NATO expansion to the Baltic states, as well as support by the West of those states that achieved the overthrow of existing regimes in the zone of influence of Moscow.

Putin's comments aroused irritation of European leaders and sharp criticism from the American politicians present at the conference. Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, who will probably run for presidential presidential elections, repulsed Putin. Starting with the words: “In today's multipolar world there is no place for a causeless confrontation,” he made a more frank attack. “Will there be a turn of Russia to autocratic rule even more noticeable, will the country's foreign policy be even more opposed to the principles of Western democracy, and will its energy policy be used as an intimidation tool? he asked. “Moscow should understand that its partnership with the West will not bear any fruit if the actions she has taken is fundamentally different from the values that have become key for Euro-Atlantic democracies.”

In Washington, the representative of the White House Gordon Jondrou said: “We are surprised and disappointed with the performance of Vladimir Putin. The accusations contained in this speech are incorrect. We hope to continue cooperation with Russia in areas that are important for the international community, such as the fight against terrorism and non -proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. ”

Some analysts believe that by the tonality of the speech of Vladimir Putin, one can judge the extent to which Russia's income from oil trade and other raw materials increased its position.

The Financial Times ( Great Britain ):

According to Vladimir Putin, Russia is subject to discrimination even in the field of investment. Foreign companies account for 26% of all oil produced in Russia. However, Russian companies that want to invest in foreign assets come across obstacles. The ratio of foreign investment within the country to the volume of investments of Russian companies abroad is 15: 1. During the time of Vladimir Putin’s speech, the words were practically the only reconciliation remark that George Bush is “a decent person” that you can deal with.

Die sueddeutsche zeitung ( Germany ):

When the Russian authorities wanted to report unpleasant news, this was usually done like this: at first, a senior general or minister scared the West was scared by loud words, and then Vladimir Putin came and reassured excited minds. As a result, Putin earned the favor of Europeans as a “balancing” leader. However, this time he was not going to soften the words of the Minister of Defense Sergei Ivanov about the US plans to strengthen the missile defense system. Putin extremely unequivocally warned the American authorities that he was thinking about their plans.

Whoever wants to, can recall the speeches of the Cold War, but this is still far away, and soon the time will come of a verbal disarmament. At the Munich conference, signs have already been manifested that many Europeans look at US plans to strengthen the missile defense with skepticism, that inside NATO itself there is a need to discuss this problem. Consequently, the Russian president has achieved his goal. Obviously, the United States hoped that Russia, as with the expansion of NATO, would have to do the willy-nilly to come to terms with the new state of affairs. But Moscow has been getting stronger since then and has been claiming the role of the chief player. It seems that Europeans share the concern of the Russian government. Now the matter is for Washington.

02/11/2007 / Madina Shavlokhova, Alexander Sidyachko, the material was published in the newspaper No. 25 of 02/12/2007.