American Congressmen hope for better relations with Russia despite existing differences according to Mikhail Margelov, the Chairman of the International Relations Committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, who headed the Russian delegation at a meeting of the US Senate-Russian Federation Council working group in Washington on Wednesday. This conclusion by Mr Margelov sounds, let us be frank, overly optimistic, particularly in the light of concerns voiced by politicians, experts, and journalists over the future of Russian-American relations.
There are reasons for concern. The United States is planning to deploy ten ABM missiles silos in Poland and a radar site in the Czech Republic to counter, as Moscow says, a non-existent threat from Iran. However, Washington has already signed the relevant agreement with Prague. Russia sees the missile defence plans and the encroachment of NATO closer to the Russian border as a threat to its national security. What triggers particular concern in Moscow are moves by the West to draw the Ukraine and Georgia into NATO.
Nevertheless, let us note that Senator Margelov came to his conclusion after the two sides discussed a wide range of issues of bilateral and international concern in Russian-American relations, including Iran’s nuclear programme, non-proliferation, democracy, and human rights. Also on the agenda was the obsolete Jackson-Vanik amendment, which has been in force since the Cold War, and imposes restrictions on US trade and economic ties with Russia. The Congress has the sole power to abolish it.
The Russian delegation received a positive response from the staffs of both leading presidential candidates, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. Such a response is of tremendous importance, as it comes during the time of political limbo that America goes through prior to the presidential elections in November. President Dmitri Medvedev said there should be no break in proceedings in relations between Russia and the United States, because their opinion is not trivial in global affairs, especially in such a politically-unstable time. It would be good if the positive reaction received by the Russian MPs in Washington translates into concrete action in future. Moscow is fully prepared to fully pull its weight. In the meantime, Russia wants the US to clarify its position on ABM defence and accelerate negotiations on the reduction in strategic offensive weapons. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a corresponding statement at the ASEAN forum in Singapore.
24 July 2008
Viktor Yenikeyev
Voice of Russia World Service
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=77974&cid=19&p=24.07.2008 (in Russian)
Editor’s Note:
It is interesting to note that Mr Yenikeyev speaks of a “political limbo”. This means that Republicans are probably ready to ditch George Bush’s inane neocon policies. Bush is the most unpopular US president ever, and he has the dubious distinction of ousting Warren G Harding as the worst. He has the gall to lecture Russia on “democracy” and “human rights” after using B-52s and artillery shells as his preferred ambassadors.
When Bush entered office, there were healthy budget surpluses, the dollar was strong, and threats were contained with a minimum of force. Today, there is a yawning budget deficit, the dollar is in free fall, what few American troops there are find themselves committed to peripheral theatres in a lunatic campaign to “spread democracy”, and the richest Americans are rewarded with minimal regulation and tax cuts in the face of spiralling government spending.
In short, it is a recipe for Bush to do something abysmally stupid to “retrieve his legacy”. That is, “I may have been a ****-up, but, I detached the Ukraine definitively from Russia”. It is a scary thought to reflect on the fact that some of the proposed ideas that are floating around Washington are from Cloud-Cuckoo Land. Given the human propensity for self-delusion, George Bush may just try one of them to “secure his place in history”. The risk of utter failure does not deter this grinning adolescent.
Unfortunately, contemporary America is a very large toddler in soiled nappies that throws violent temper tantrums when it is crossed. We were once a much more humble and better people. Lunatic crusades for “democracy” appeal only to the juvenile, and if you think that “you can change the world”, well… good luck to you, but, don’t expect me to join the fun. Death is rather permanent, and that is only end result of such raving.
If there were justice in this world, the sons of the neocons would be on the line at risk in their crazy wars. They are not, and that is something to seriously ponder. They wish to put your sons in harm’s way whilst safeguarding their own. Great people. Welcome to democracy…
A note on Jackson-Vanik:
This legislation was designed as a weapon against “non-market economies that restricted emigration of their citizens”. That has not been true of Russia since the 90s. The retention of this Cold War dinosaur was, perhaps, the greatest impediment to the normal development of American-Russian trade (only 4 percent of Russia’s current trade turnover is with the USA). Not only that, it restricted American influence in the Russian sphere. This has become a glaring example of American juvenile neocon preachiness, and it should be thrown in the dustbin as quickly as possible. Russia is not the old Soviet Union, and all the ranting of neocons (such as “La Russophobe” on the web) cannot make it such.
Russia wishes to resume the honoured ways of the old empire, not the communist expansionism of the 20th century. America can be a friend or it can be an enemy. Put Jackson-Vanik on the rubbish tip where it belongs (although it served a purpose in its time), Russia and the USA are equals, and should treat one another as such.
