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What occurred with the plane of Bolivian President Juan Evo Morales Ayma a few days ago wasn’t an isolated and rather unpleasant incident; rather, it was a very serious political event, fraught with the most-negative consequences for the international legal order as such. Ironically, in a twist of history, the violation of the extraterritoriality of a plane belonging to the president of a sovereign state and the many-hour delay of President Morales took place in the Austrian capital of Vienna, the venue of the signing of one of the most important documents of modern international law… the Vienna Convention… providing for diplomatic immunity. This created a very dangerous precedent. It attacked international law, which prevents the world from turning into a jungle of total lawlessness!
Vienna wasn’t alone in this repulsive political spectacle. Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, and Rome closed their countries’ skies to the Bolivian President’s plane; they share the responsibility for this disgraceful incident, they share the stigma of violating international law and of scorning elementary political decency. The dirty-tricks crowd believed that they’d be able to justify their actions afterwards, after they found “contraband” on the plane, that is, after finding super-spy Edward Snowden. However, since Snowden wasn’t on Morales’ plane, those who orchestrated the affair found themselves in an awkward situation. The haste and readiness of some European political leaders to please other people’s interests… we needn’t say whose… revealed what in other cases stays hidden.
There’s no doubt that Washington was behind this loathsome story. The handwriting is familiar! Again… a double standard. Washington’s current “headache”… the Iranian problem… began with the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran. Calling it “the crime of the century”, then-US President Carter angrily complained about the violation of international law and the Vienna Convention. The Pentagon fulminated at that time; today, it’s enraged over the seizure of the US Embassy in Libya and the killing of the US ambassador. That was justifiable outrage. However, why haven’t we heard one voice in Washington expressing their anger over what we can call, with good reason, an attack on President Morales? Such are the political morals of today’s Washington. However, a law is a law, and any violation of the law is very perilous, including for those who violate it.
9 July 2013
Valentin Zorin
Voice of Russia World Service
http://rus.ruvr.ru/2013_07_15/Eshhe-raz-o-samolete-Moralesa-zakon-est-zakon-7010/
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_07_09/Morales-plane-incident-ugly-unlawful-political-performance-9017/
Voices from Russia 
A View from Moscow by Valentin Zorin… Trust is Crucial in Russian-American Relations
Tags: A View from Moscow, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, diplomacy, diplomatic relations, George H W Bush, George W. Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev, Moscow, Nuclear weapon, political commentary, politics, Russia, Russian, Russian diplomacy, Russian history, Soviet Union, United States, USA, USSR, Washington
THIS is what WILL happen if we don’t stop the American Drive for Global Hegemony… it’s not benign… it’s not humane… it’d be a Dark Night of the Soul… it’d be the Danse Macabre of a “Christian” Antichrist. Do ponder it…
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Barack Obama’s proposal to cut nuclear arsenals by one-third didn’t win the support that he expected that it would in Moscow. Russia mistrusts the American peace initiative. Washington considers the speech delivered by Barack Obama in Berlin on 19 June an important political move. Really, the proposal presented by the American President to Russia to reduce the nuclear potential of the two countries by one-third looks quite spectacular… at first glance. Yet, Russia’s tepid response to the seemingly-sensational initiative led to great disappointment in Washington. The idea failed to draw thunderous applause, from either Moscow or other capitals of world powers, contrary to the expectations of its authors. Several weeks after the speech, no one mentions it at international forums or in leading media outlets. I believe that the reason for this situation is that, contrary to expectations of the Inside the Beltway crowd, Moscow didn’t jump at the idea with enthusiasm… it practically ignored it.
I’ll leave military specialists to comment on why the seemingly-radical proposal didn’t kindle enthusiasm among our military leaders, but I’ll express my opinion concerning the political aspect of the affair. From the most ancient times, the essential foundation of normal relations between countries was… and still is… trust. It’s almost impossible to build international relations without mutual trust. In my opinion, this is the reason for the difficulties between Russia and the USA. Without going into the history of Russian-American relations, unfortunately, I must say that there’s no trust between Moscow and Washington, even though we need it and it’s sought after. At the same time, I submit that Russia isn’t to blame for this state of affairs.
Moscow never violated any of the important international treaties it signed during the post-war period. Not one! On the contrary, that isn’t true of Washington. Its leaders violated their most solemn formal commitments more than once. In August 1975, representatives from 35 sovereign states, including the US President, signed the Helsinki Accords, a basic document of contemporary international law, “which declared the principle of non-violability of borders in Europe”. However, in March 1999, US President Bill Clinton ordered the bombing of Belgrade; as a result, sovereign Yugoslavia ceased to exist as a united state. In 2003, President George W Bush violated the UN Charter by his invasion of sovereign Iraq, which sent the ancient state on the banks of Tigris and Euphrates to the brink of collapse. Let me cite another example, witnessed by me personally. In 1988, at talks with President Gorbachyov, President George H W Bush said that NATO forces wouldn’t move towards the borders of the USSR by a single inch in case of German unification. I heard this with my own ears; he repeated it many times. This solemn promise is common knowledge. It’s all too easy to go down this nasty list of events.
The need for real measures to lower the military threat, including nuclear weapons, is self-evident. However, it’s virtually impossible to achieve in a state of suspicion and distrust. It’s no simple task to revive lost trust and confidence; we need mutual effort, goodwill, and sufficient time to do it. There’s no alternative, and we should do this equally, without sparing any efforts.
Valentin Zorin
Voice of Russia World Service
http://rus.ruvr.ru/2013_07_03/O-doverii-v-rossijsko-amerikanskih-otnoshenijah-3762/
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_07_06/Trust-is-crucial-7668/