Translated material
Dr. Rice
The US Secretary of State diagnosed “aggressive paranoia” in Russia
Russian-American relations continue to be very tense - differences in the positions of the two countries, aggravated after the conflict in the Caucasus, threaten cooperation between Moscow and Washington in key areas of global security. With the approaching presidential elections in the United States, the tone of statements by White House representatives regarding Russia is becoming increasingly harsh. Meanwhile, yesterday began with positive news, indicating the possibility of a long-awaited “thaw”.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev received credentials in the Kremlin from ambassadors of a dozen countries, among whom was the new US diplomatic representative in Moscow, John Beyrle . In his speech, the president called Russian-American relations “one of the priority areas of Russian foreign policy, which largely determines the general atmosphere in the world.” He recalled that “the history of Russian-American relations has seen many acute situations,” but “in the end, common sense, pragmatism and consideration of each other’s interests have always triumphed.”
“We have collectively accumulated significant potential for promoting political dialogue, ties in the trade, economic, energy, investment fields, and expanding humanitarian contacts. It would be politically short-sighted to exchange these achievements over trifles, reviving the stereotypes of previous years,” Dmitry Medvedev emphasized. And the day before, on September 17, the new Russian ambassador in Washington, Sergei Kislyak , presented his credentials to US President George W. Bush. During the conversation, the Russian diplomat and the American president also expressed hope that the United States and Russia “will be able to overcome the difficulties that relations between the two countries have encountered.”
However, towards evening, aggressive rhetoric returned to the bilateral dialogue. Sharp attacks against Russia were made by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who gave a lecture at the Washington office of the Marshall Fund "Germany-USA". According to American experts, these were the most severe attacks on the Kremlin during Ms. Rice's tenure as head of the US foreign policy department. By the way, yesterday she prudently called her Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov and warned about the speech.
Ms. Rice argued that Russia continues to move in the opposite direction of democratic reform, and recent events in the Caucasus are just the latest manifestation of this trend: “The attack on Georgia crystallized the course that Russian leaders have taken and brought us to a critical moment for Russia and the whole world." “It has now become clear that the correct goal of Russia’s revival has turned into its dark opposite, accompanied by the rollback of human rights, arbitrariness in the application of the law, pervasive corruption at various levels of Russian society and paranoid aggressive impulses that have previously manifested themselves in Russian history,” she said Condoleezza Rice. As a result of such internal transformation, Russia, in her words, has taken “a path leading to isolation.”
The meager list of political forces that wished to support Russia by recognizing the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is also intended to testify to the isolation of Moscow. “The pat on the back from Daniel Ortega and Hamas can hardly be called a diplomatic triumph,” says Ms. Rice, referring to the support expressed to Moscow by the Nicaraguan president and the leadership of the radical Palestinian movement . Russia also got it for Russian-Venezuelan military maneuvers in the Caribbean Sea. “We are confident that our ties with our neighbors, who pursue the goal of improving the level of education, health, work and life, will in no way be undermined by a few aging Blackjack bombers (Tu-160 - Ed. ) visiting one of the few autocracies in Latin America,” she noted, referring to the growing military-technical cooperation between Moscow and Caracas, which is in opposition to the United States.
As for the domestic political situation in Russia, here too Ms. Rice set her priorities very clearly: “We will continue to sponsor Russian students and teachers, judges and journalists, trade union leaders and democratic reformers who want to visit America. We will continue to support all Russians who want a free future for their great nation." Such an open hint at Washington’s desire to interfere in internal political processes in Russia is unlikely to help the movement towards democracy; rather, it is used to justify their rightness by those who warn the public about the treachery of the West, which allegedly dreams of organizing an “Orange Revolution” in Moscow.
“The latest harsh statements by representatives of the US administration should not be seen solely as a consequence of Russian-American contradictions in the Caucasus,” Nikolai Zlobin, director of Russian and Asian programs at the Washington Institute for World Security, noted in a conversation with Vremya Novostei. According to him, “a year ago it was obvious that with the approaching presidential elections in the United States, relations between Moscow and Washington would deteriorate politically.” “There are too many issues on which the United States fundamentally disagrees with Russia. The main thing is that the US State Department is convinced that the Russian state has turned from a democratic one into an authoritarian one, with significant problems with human rights, freedom of party activity, assembly, and media independence. These are all areas that are considered key for America from the point of view of a democratic structure,” our interlocutor testifies.
In addition, one should take into account the specific personality of Condoleezza Rice herself - an extraordinary and ambitious politician. “As recently as three years ago, she was considered as one of the possible candidates for the 2008 presidential election from the Republican Party. She was hampered by the fact that she identified herself too closely with the White House and personally with George Bush, and therefore the failures of American policy in Iraq and Afghanistan reduced her chances to zero. Opponents immediately recalled that before she came to the post of Secretary of State in 2005, Condoleezza Rice held the position of National Security Advisor to the US President and participated in all stages of preparation for the US military operation in Iraq,” emphasizes Mr. Zlobin.
Nevertheless, opportunities for developing Russian-American dialogue still remain. This primarily applies to those issues on which the positions of Russia and the United States have become noticeably closer in recent months, such as the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea. Today in Washington there will be a meeting of the “six” international mediators on Iran. As the Russian Foreign Ministry reported yesterday, representatives of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, the United States, China, Great Britain and France) and Germany “will exchange views on the situation around the Iranian nuclear program and discuss possible steps to resolve it through political and diplomatic means.”
In the United States, many are also concerned about the protracted Russian-American skirmish. Senator Richard Lugar and former Senator Sam Nunn fear that "growing hostility" between Moscow and Washington will jeopardize joint efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Nevertheless, the founders of the Russian-American program to control WMD in the countries of the former USSR recalled that their brainchild “has previously survived in conditions of very bad mutual feelings between the United States and Russia.”
“Russian-American cooperation on certain issues of international politics will continue to develop,” Nikolai Zlobin is sure, but it will not be sustainable. “You cannot cooperate strategically reliably in some specific areas, trusting each other one hundred percent in them, if you deceive each other in other areas. Americans are confident that they can interact with Russians only where such interaction meets their national interests. In all other areas, the United States will not cooperate, but fight with Russia,” the expert predicts.