Strong Russia Annoys Usa

[skhara]

Armenia?

 

 

Source

 

The USA still can not understand that it did not win the Cold War

 

US Senate Committee for Appropriations has expressed concern about the strengthening of Russia's role in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The Committee called on the State Department to convoke an international conference on issues relating to the promotion of democracy in the region. "Opposing a growing threat posed by Russia to the countries which are in transition to democracy should be a priority to the US," says the statement. "The Committee points out that successful democratic reforms in those countries will be of crucial importance to support and promotion of democratic development in other countries including Belarus," says the cover letter to a budgetary bill passed by the Committee. The 2006 budget of US Department of State allows for $85 million to be allocated for democracy and reform promotion programs in Russia. The committee signed off on a total sum of $565 millions to be allocated for support of democracy, economic reforms, supremacy of the law in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The above sum is expected to break down as follows: $95 million to be allocated for Ukraine; $75 millions for Armenia; $70.5 million for Georgia; $38 million for Azerbaijan; $35 million for Kyrgyzstan; and $15 million for Belarus.

 

Different sizes of funds earmarked for democracy promotion are quite noteworthy. On the one hand, $85 million will hardly make a difference for Russia no matter what we are talking about. On the other hand, $95 million for Ukraine and $75 million for Armenia look like a big amount of money. The money could give a huge boost to supporters of "orange" revolution in Ukraine. It could also disrupt political stability in Armenia. Speaking to the press on the eve of the Astana summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Uzbek President Islam Karimov openly accused the American "directors" of engineering upheavals in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Politicians and common people alike in every Central Asian republic of the former Soviet Union say explicitly that they have more trust in Russia despite a wide variety of aid programs offered by the Americans. Besides, US military presence in Central Asia is a source of concern to China. During the summit meeting in Astana, members states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization voiced their desire to effect independent control over the situation in the region.

 

Konstantin Zatulin, the State Duma deputy and director of the Institute of the CIS studies, says that funds allocated by the US for the "promotion of democracy" aim to promote a US model of democracy and spread US influence in the above countries. "United Russia or any other pro-government party in Russia will not get a penny of those funds, Ukraine's opposition will get the money either," said Mr. Zatulin. It is obvious that the US has long put to good use a certain pattern and methods for carrying out foreign policy operations. Calling a government democratic or undemocratic is just a ritual to the USA "After that they use the whole range of tools available for toppling unfriendly regimes, huge funds involved in such operations are beyond any comparison to those which are allocated officially," said Mr. Zatulin. "The Cold War is over, but some old habits die hard," added he.

 

Mr. Zatulin believes Russia should use similar methods. "Taking into account that Russia has become a country with a multiparty political system and market-oriented economy, Russia should cast aside its fake shyness and use the weapons of the West in this field of activity," said he. Despite a significant difference in financial resources of the two countries, Russia is much more interested in developing democracy in the neighboring countries. Pro-Russian forces could only step to the fore only when democracy is in place. "Why don't we set the ball in motion in the Baltic states?" said Mr. Zatulin.

 

"As regards Armenia, Russia's only ally, the country is a principal candidate for the next "color" revolution, the size of officially allocated funds reflects a priority, but yet it is the tip of the iceberg as I told you earlier," said Mr. Zatulin with regard to a "cost estimate" of US Senate Committee. Aleksei Zudin, head of political sciences department of the Center of Political Technologies, points out that Washington's idea of democracy for the countries of the former Soviet Union actually implies the establishment of regimes which are dependent on the US "A political instability zone is being built around Russia by stepping up democratic developments which can not create strong political institutions, on the contrary, political institutions can only grow weaker as a result," said Mr. Zudin.

 

Those who place an order for revolution and work behind the scenes are fully aware of consequences. In other words, the instigators of the "color" revolutions in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan had planned the overthrowing of the authorities by force.

 

America has a number of priorities with regard to funds allocated for the "promotion of democracy." The size of funds will be commensurate with those priorities. The White House is planning to make a serious political effort in countries than border on Russia. Operations in Russia are aimed at producing "irritating effects" only.

 

"The USA still can not understand that it did not win the Cold War," said Mr. Zudin. He believes that Americans are wrong to liken the defeat of Nazi Germany to the collapse of communism. The dismantling of Nazism brought out winners and losers, "democratic teachers" and "democratic students." The collapse of communism was caused by internal factors, not the external ones. Nations who got rid of communism without US assistance simply reject being lectured by foreign "experts" on ways and pace of reforms they should follow. They can not accept compulsory export of democratic institutions either.

 

Mr. Zudin believes Russian-US relations are getting increasingly paradoxical. Partnership and cooperation in some areas are accompanied by the attempts aiming to put unilateral pressure on the political process in other areas.

Edited July 17, 2005 by skhara

[skhara]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...MNGSJDR79F1.DTL

 

St. Petersburg, Russia -- Growing disputes between the United States and Russia are threatening to significantly chill the once warm relations between the two countries. They also may seriously undercut a major front in the U.S. war on terrorism.

 

The new fault lines lie in the rugged terrain of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, two former Soviet republics in Central Asia that the Pentagon has been using as launching pads for military and humanitarian operations in Afghanistan.

 

This month, the Kremlin -- backed by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, an Asian alliance presided over by Russia and China -- said the United States should set a pullout date from the Central Asian bases, where approximately 2,000 American troops have been stationed for nearly four years.

 

Russia's demand angered the Bush administration, which does not want to lose its toehold in a region it considers pivotal to its anti-terrorism efforts and crucial to maintaining a presence close to its Cold War-era archenemy.

 

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused Russia and China of "bullying" Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan into cutting off access to U. S. troops. And Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, rejected any timetable for a withdrawal in an interview with the Washington Post last week, saying that the U.S. military operates based on "circumstances'' and not "dates.''

 

Russia responded to Myers' comments by saying, in a Foreign Ministry statement, that it is "bewildered by the comments" of the top U.S. general.

 

In a further sign of estrangement, Russia announced plans to conduct its first joint military exercises with China -- a hint to the United States that Russia has "other geopolitical options," said Anatol Lieven, an expert on Russia and U.S. foreign policy at the New America think tank in Washington, D.

C.

 

Early in his first term, President Bush said he had developed a special relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he called "my friend. " And as recently as 2003, Bush called Russia "a country in which democracy and freedom and rule of law thrive."

 

But "both sides see the other differently now," said Michael McFaul, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. Bush has grown more suspicious of Putin, McFaul said, mainly because of "democratic backsliding" in Russia, "which cuts against the grain of (Bush's) liberty doctrine," and also because "the Russians are not delivering much on other aspects of the relationship."

 

After Sept. 11, 2001, Russia positioned itself as a major ally of the United States, supporting the war in Afghanistan and even, according to some reports, sharing military intelligence with Washington. In return, the Bush administration muted its criticism of the war in Chechnya and declining political freedoms in Russia. But as military operations in Afghanistan wound down after the initial assault and the United States began preparing for the war in Iraq, which Russia opposed, the mutual goodwill began to wane. The clash over the American military presence in Central Asia came after a string of setbacks in U.S.-Russian relations, including actions by the Kremlin to quash opposition voices, alleged human rights abuses in Chechnya, the dispute over Ukraine's 2004 presidential election and Moscow's assistance to Iran in building a nuclear facility that the United States fears may be used to make nuclear weapons.

 

"Russia did a lot in Afghanistan in the beginning, but not much since," McFaul said. "I think that many consider Russia a liability ... because of how unstable things still are in and around Chechnya."

 

Disappointment with the relationship has been mounting in the Kremlin as well, analysts say.

 

Bush's repeated promises to help Russia join the World Trade Organization and lift the punitive 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment, which curbed trade with the former Soviet Union, have so far yielded no results, undercutting Putin's drive to boost his country's economy by opening the Russian market to Western investment.

 

Recent popular uprisings in the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine have caused alarm in Russia, which believes they were orchestrated by Washington, said Nikolas Gvosdev, a Russia expert at the Nixon Center in Washington.

 

"Putin seems to think ... that forces in the State Department (and) Congress ... are working to use 'flower revolutions' not to advance democracy but to pursue American geopolitical objectives -- and even to try and affect the 2008 (presidential) elections in Russia itself," Gvosdev said.

 

Putin is also frustrated that the West doesn't really see the war in Chechnya, which is now in its 12th year, as another front in the global war on terror.

 

Russia felt snubbed again last week when Congress invited Leonid Nevzlin, a major shareholder of Russia's embattled Yukos oil giant, to speak about Russia's jailing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed Yukos owner and an opposition sponsor. A Kremlin official said the U.S. refusal to extradite Nevzlin -- who resides in Israel and is wanted in Russia on charges of organizing a double murder, fraud and tax evasion -- jeopardized relations between Putin and Bush, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

 

All this has translated into a growing mistrust of the United States. Almost half of the respondents in a May poll of 6,000 listeners by Ekho Moskvy radio saw the United States as hostile to Russia.

 

It is not clear, however, how far Washington and Moscow are willing to distance themselves from each other, said Lieven.

 

"I don't necessarily think that we're in a period of drastic decline in the relationship," he said. "It will be a long, long chess game in which there won't be any clear decisions."

 

Washington needs Russia to secure the former Soviet Union's enormous, poorly guarded nuclear arsenal to prevent terrorists from getting their hands on weapons of mass destruction. The United States also hopes that Putin can play a mediating role between the West and nations such as North Korea, Iran and Syria. American companies also want to exploit Russia's rich oil and gas fields.

 

Similarly, having Bush on his side is important for Putin.

 

In addition to pursuing more favorable trade status and membership in the World Trade Organization, Russia hopes the United States can prevent Georgia from sending troops to that country's pro-Russian secessionist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Lieven said. The Kremlin also hopes Washington can slow Ukraine's entry into NATO. Until the "Orange Revolution" last year, Ukraine had been seen as a crucial pro-Kremlin buffer between Russia and the West.

 

But Gvosdev said the time when the White House was prepared to overlook Russia's human rights abuses and imperial tendencies for the sake of partnership in the war against terror is over.

 

"Rhetorically, yes -- Russia is an important partner," Gvosdev said. "Effectively, though, I think we are returning to a pre-9/11 situation where each major actor in the international system ... evaluates cooperation with other partners on a case-by-case basis."