Rice: Russia "becoming authoritarian", "isola

[Surlethe]

Link: BBC

Rice criticises 'isolated' Russia

Russia is becoming increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said.

In a strongly-worded speech, Ms Rice said Moscow was on a "one-way path to isolation and irrelevance".

Diplomatic relations between the US and Russia have been strained by the recent conflict in Georgia.

Earlier, Russia's president said the two nations should not risk established ties over "trivial matters."

Dmitry Medvedev said it would be "politically short-sighted" if Washington and Moscow were to endanger their political and economic ties.

However, Ms Rice suggested in her speech that following the conflict in Georgia, Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organisation had been put in doubt.

The US has already shelved a civilian nuclear deal with Russia, but despite tensions the two countries are maintaining diplomatic links.

Ms Rice held a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov just hours before delivering her speech, says the BBC's Kim Ghattas in Washington, and Russia is also due to join an international meeting on Iran's nuclear programme on Friday.

Our correspondent says Moscow is also telling the US that its co-operation is needed over issues like Iran and North Korea, with many in Washington feeling the Russians have a point.

Several hours after Ms Rice spoke, it emerged that a Russian submarine test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

An official from Russia's defence ministry is quoted as saying that the test - carried out in Russia's far-eastern Kamchatka peninsula - went according to plan.

'Deeply disconcerting'

Speaking at an event organised by the German Marshall Fund in Washington, Ms Rice acknowledged that Georgia had fired the first shots in the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Ms Rice said Russia had tried to dismember Georgia

"The Georgian government launched a major military operation into Tskhinvali [the capital of South Ossetia] and other areas of that separatist region," she said.

"Regrettably, several Russian peacekeepers were killed in the fighting," she added.

But Ms Rice said that Russia had escalated the conflict.

"Russia's leaders violated Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity and launched a full-scale invasion across an internationally recognised border," she said, adding that Russia had also violated the terms of a ceasefire negotiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Ms Rice said it had been "deeply disconcerting" that Russia had tried to "dismember" Georgia by recognising Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and argued that Russia's actions were part of what she described as a "worsening pattern of behaviour".

"I refer... to Russia's intimidation of its sovereign neighbours, its use of oil and gas as a political weapon... its threat to target peaceful neighbours with nuclear weapons... and its persecution - or worse - of Russian journalists and dissidents," she added.

Pledging help to rebuild Georgia, Ms Rice said the US and Europe would not let Russia benefit from aggression.

'Taking the bait'

Ms Rice admitted that Georgia could have responded better to the events last month in South Ossetia.

"We warned our Georgian friends that Russia was baiting them, and that taking this bait would only play into Moscow's hands," she said.

However Ms Rice, an expert on the Soviet Union, also said that Russia could not blame its behaviour on the enlargement of Nato.

"Since the end of the Cold War, we and our allies have worked to transform Nato... into a means for nurturing the growth of a Europe whole, free and at peace."

The promise of Nato membership had been a positive incentive for states to build democratic institutions and reform their economies, she added.

And she insisted that Russia would not be allowed to dictate who joined the Nato alliance.

"We will not allow Russia to wield a veto over the future of our Euro-Atlantic community - neither what states we offer membership, nor the choice of those states to accept it," she said

"We have made this particularly clear to our friends in Ukraine."

The secretary of state was also critical of the domestic situation inside Russia.

"What has become clear is that the legitimate goal of rebuilding Russia has taken a dark turn - with the rollback of personal freedoms, the arbitrary enforcement of the law [and] the pervasive corruption at various levels of Russian society," she said.

Russia's leaders were risking the future progress of the Russian people, she said, declaring that Russia's leaders "are putting Russia on a one-way path to self-imposed isolation and international irrelevance".

The irony of an American neoconservative saying this just blows my mind.

[K. A. Pital]

At least she admitted Georgia attacked Ossetia. Took them a month to spell it out, right?

"Regrettably, several Russian peacekeepers were killed in the fighting,"

You bet. "Regrettably". You cheered all along when your pet little client nation murdered Russian soldiers, Condi. You just didn't expect Russia to wake the fuck up, and suddenly beat Georgia into bloody pulp. Because you and your little circle were thinking that retaliating for killed soldiers is only possible for US or Israel.

Wake up call: you don't kill our soldiers and get nothing in return, whatever you might think about that, Condi.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Gates seem to be more measured in his tone now, vis a vis Condi's rhetoric. Considering that the USSR was her thesis topic, I wonder what she wrote in that thesis. Or is she pandering to the conservative elements?

Though quite frankly, it is clear that the extremely conservative elements in Europe are leading in the hysteria.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/world ... ussia.html

The New York Times
Printer Friendly Format Sponsored By

September 19, 2008
Gates Urges Cautious NATO Stance on Russia After Georgia Conflict
By THOM SHANKER

LONDON — With NATO divided over how to respond to a newly assertive Russia, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that he would urge alliance ministers meeting here to adopt a cautious and deliberate approach that would reassure newer members along the Russian border without provoking hostilities.

Mr. Gates has said he does not anticipate any armed Russian incursions into the territory of NATO member countries, but said Moscow was more likely to pursue strategies of “pressure and intimidation,” including restricting its supplies of oil and gas, on which Europe depends.

Mr. Gates made his comments as the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, struck a conciliatory tone in Moscow, saying he hoped that Russia and the United States could find a way to improve relations.

At the same time, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a tough speech to the German Marshall Fund in Washington, saying the West must stand up to the Kremlin’s “bullying.” And European security officials walked away from talks with Russia about a proposal to place observers in South Ossetia, the breakaway Georgian enclave, over Moscow’s refusal to allow the observers to enter the territory.

In suggesting that Russia was not averse to putting pressure on NATO members, senior Defense Department officials traveling with Mr. Gates noted that Russia was already suspected of mounting damaging computer attacks on at least one of its Baltic neighbors, Estonia, which is in NATO.

“We need to proceed with some caution because there clearly is a range of views in the alliance about how to respond, from some of our friends in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states to some of the countries in Western Europe,” Mr. Gates said.

After Russian troops routed the armed forces of Georgia, and Moscow recognized South Ossetia and another breakaway enclave, Abkhazia, some of the newer NATO members expressed concerns about their own territorial integrity. Among the most concerned were the Baltic States — Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — as well as Poland and the Czech Republic.

Some of the larger, more distant and longtime NATO members, like Germany and Italy, stressed a more conciliatory policy, urging Russia to return to international standards of behavior and arguing against punishing it.

“I think there is a middle ground,” Mr. Gates said during an interview with American and British reporters here, after meetings with commanders and senior officials in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He urged the alliance to continue “some prudent things that are consistent with the kinds of activities NATO has been engaged in for nearly 60 years in terms of planning, in terms of exercises.”

Such steps, he said, “are not provocative and don’t tend to draw any firm red lines or send signals that are unwanted.” But at the same time, they provide “reassurance to the allies in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states that we are mindful of their concerns,” he said.

Russian actions to separate Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgia should not be considered a fait accompli, Mr. Gates said. And he argued for a united response to guarantee the territorial integrity of Georgia.

Yet the inability of the United States and its allies to roll back Russian policy in Georgia presented the NATO alliance with yet another challenge to its relevancy in a post-cold war world.

After a decade of NATO expansion into the former Communist bloc, a resurgent Russia is now vigorously opposing membership for Georgia and Ukraine, and pressing those already in the alliance with threats should Poland and the Czech Republic cooperate with the United States on missile defense.

The NATO alliance operates under a provision, known as Article V, that guarantees mutual defense, promising a “one for all, all for one” military response should any member be attacked.

But Russia’s military moves into Georgia revealed a gap in the alliance, between those who say Georgia should receive speedy membership for future protection and those who say membership might draw the alliance into an unwanted war with Russia.

A senior Defense Department official traveling with Mr. Gates acknowledged the “fears, perhaps, that Article V is not what we would have presumed it to be just a year or two ago,” even though Georgia is not a member of NATO.

“I think it would be fair to say that the Baltics and some of the nations are looking at Georgia and saying: ‘What if this happens to me? What can I expect from NATO, given its capabilities and given what has happened in Georgia?’ ” the official said. “We have to build confidence there, we have to reassure, and NATO has to re-examine, ‘How would you respond?’ ”

In Moscow, Mr. Medvedev welcomed new ambassadors to Russia — including the new American envoy, John Beyrle — with remarks in which he indicated that he would like to repair ties with the United States.

“The history of Russian-American relations has witnessed many critical situations,” he said. “But in the end, common sense, pragmatism and mutual interests will always prevail.”

Meanwhile, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe announced that it had abandoned talks with Russia over observers in South Ossetia.

The two sides had worked together there since 1992, and eight observers were in its capital through heavy Georgian shelling last month. Since they left, Russia has denied them access to the area, agreeing only to deploy observers in the security zone on South Ossetia’s periphery.

As a result, the organization has not been able to assess physical damage from the war, the prospects for refugee return or the fate of several of its projects.

Another question is what remains of South Ossetia’s Georgian neighborhoods and villages, many of which were razed and depopulated as Ossetians flowed back into Tskhinvali, the capital.

“This is a very human concern,” said Antti Turunen, head of the permanent mission of Finland to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna. “Whether they will ever come back, that is the question.”

Andrei Nesterenko, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said Russia was “concerned by the refusal” of the security group’s negotiators to move forward, the Interfax news agency reported.

The two sides agreed a month ago to deploy 100 additional observers to Georgia, leaving open the question of where they would work. Twenty-eight observers are currently patrolling the security zone outside South Ossetia.

Ellen Barry and Clifford J. Levy contributed reporting from Moscow.

[Edi]

"Becoming more authoritarian"

Only ten years behind the curve there, Rice, we could have told you that way back when. That article reveals just how pathetic the current administrations capability to deal with anything related to Russia is.

[irishmick79]

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Russia can fuck the US hard in the Middle East if it wanted to, and the US isn't really in a position to respond. If the US wants to maintain its commitments in the ME it is in their interest to keep the Bear happy (or at least indifferent), and this rhetoric isn't exactly helpful.

I really don't understand why the conservatives love to rail on Russia so hard - very few of them seem to acknowledge or even understand the potentially dramatic consequences of a poisoned relationship with Russia.

[The Spartan]

I really don't understand why the conservatives love to rail on Russia so hard - very few of them seem to acknowledge or even understand the potentially dramatic consequences of a poisoned relationship with Russia.

Because they're still stuck in the Cold War. Why do you think they, at least in part, hype the War on Terror so much? It's the next Cold War.

[General Zod]

"I refer... to Russia's intimidation of its sovereign neighbours, its use of oil and gas as a political weapon... its threat to target peaceful neighbours with nuclear weapons... and its persecution - or worse - of Russian journalists and dissidents," she added.

So. . . .remind me again what Iraq and Iran were about? I guess it's okay as long as you use a terrorism smokescreen?

[Vympel]

In a strongly-worded speech, Ms Rice said Moscow was on a "one-way path to isolation and irrelevance".

Uhhhhh huh. Actually, Russia was pretty much "irrelevant" in the 1990s. It's only now that Russia finally decided not to take it anymore and push back (Georgia being the "red line") that they've realized things have changed.

[Patrick Degan]

Only ten years behind the curve there, Rice, we could have told you that way back when. That article reveals just how pathetic the current administrations capability to deal with anything related to Russia is.

And this is the woman who had "Russian/Soviet expert" on her resume for a job with the maladministration, too...

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Only ten years behind the curve there, Rice, we could have told you that way back when. That article reveals just how pathetic the current administrations capability to deal with anything related to Russia is.

And this is the woman who had "Russian/Soviet expert" on her resume for a job with the maladministration, too...

Her thesis I think was that it would have been better for the world if we'd put Patton in charge of the Drive Ost against the USSR the moment WW2 ended. She has said as much in public before, at least.

[Adrian Laguna]

Her thesis I think was that it would have been better for the world if we'd put Patton in charge of the Drive Ost against the USSR the moment WW2 ended. She has said as much in public before, at least.

Wouldn't that have ended with Patton's tanks drowning in Soviet Armour while the Red Army's ridiculous amount of artillery pounded American infantry into the ground?

[Vympel]

Let's not get into a "what if the Western Allies had attacked the Soviets at the end of WW2 In Europe" debate. They're tedious.

[K. A. Pital]

You can read "Operation Unthinkable" text by Churchill's war planners and see for yourself why the operation was abandoned. No need to waste news threads for such debates.