BRICS Leaders at the
G20 in Brisbane: In refusing to turn her back on
Vladimir Putin's
Russia, Brazil President Rousseff has earned the ire
of her political
and media opponents in Brazil.
Like her Friend Putin,
'Incompetent' Dilma Lives in 'Another World' (Estadao, Brazil)
"Without
demonstrating good judgment and being guided only by a puerile
anti-Americanism, Dilma was one of the few heads of
state among the leaders of the major economies of the world to save Russian
President Putin from the isolation to which he condemned himself
thanks to his hostile behavior toward Ukraine. … At the G-20, while
leaders of the major powers were keen to demonstrate their disapproval to
Putin, Dilma maintained this lamentable behavior. In
doing so, she may please her third world cheerleaders who thrill to the
sight of someone challenging the U.S. and its Western allies, but she
diminishes the role of Brazil. … The cynicism of the Russian autocrat is no greater
than the incompetence of Dilma."
With her eagerness to show the independence of Brazilian
diplomacy under Workers' Party governments, President Dilma Rousseff is
condemning the country to global irrelevance. Without demonstrating good
judgment and being guided only by a puerile anti-Americanism, Dilma was one of the few heads of state among the leaders
of the major economies of the world to save Russian President Vladimir Putin
from the isolation to which he condemned himself thanks to his hostile behavior
toward Ukraine.
At the recent G-20 meeting in Brisbane (Australia) while the
leaders of the major powers were keen to demonstrate their disapproval to
Putin, Dilma maintained this lamentable behavior. In
doing so, she may please her third world cheerleaders who always thrill to the
sight of someone challenging the United States and its Western allies, but she
diminishes the role of Brazil on the global stage when countries put global
security at risk the way Russia does today.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
The crisis in Ukraine is one of these cases where compromise
is identical to irresponsibility. Since February when Moscow ally President
Viktor Yanukovich was ousted, the country has
experienced a growing spiral of violence. Russia’s reaction was to annex the
Crimean Peninsula and arm separatists in east Ukraine with military equipment -
included with which was a missile that brought down a Malaysia Airlines
passenger plane leaving 298 dead in July.
NATO (the Western military alliance) reported that hundreds
of Russian troops have crossed the border. Given an imminent offensive by the Russian
military, the Ukrainian government asked the European Union for help. U.S. President
Barack Obama told Moscow that by helping the rebels it is violating the
cease-fire agreement signed a few weeks ago.
“We're ... very firm on the need to uphold core
international principles,” Obama
said at the end of the G-20 meeting. “One of those principles is - is that
you don’t invade other countries or finance proxies and support them in ways
that break up a country that has mechanisms for democratic elections,” the
American president said, setting the tone of reproach to Russia which charged
the atmosphere at the G-20.
The gesture that best reflected the mood came from Canada
Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He was talking to other leaders when Putin came by.
In respect to diplomatic protocol, Harper extended his hand to greet the
Russian president, but said: “Well - I guess I’ll shake your hand but I have
only one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine.” According to a
Russian spokesperson, Putin responded “that is impossible” because “we aren’t
there.” Shortly, he abandoned the G-20 and returned to Russia because,
according to him, he needed to get to sleep to he could get back to work on
Monday.
The cynicism of the Russian
autocrat is no greater than the incompetence of Dilma.
On behalf of a Russian identity that exists only in the diplomatic fantasy that
she associates with relations with the countries of the “south” - she has even
said that Russia is “geopolitically part of the world’s south” - the president reaffirmed
her alignment with the Kremlin, refusing to join the United States and European
Union in their efforts to bring Putin to get his hands off Ukraine.
During an interview after a meeting in Brisbane, Dilma, asked
about the position of her government on the Ukrainian crisis, said that Brazil “systematically”
avoids becoming involved with "internal matters” - as if Russian
intervention in Ukraine was only a problem for Ukraine.
Once again, Dilma has converted
diplomacy into an instrument of partisan politics in the service of the
retrograde ideology of the Workers' Party and in defiance of the true interests
of the state. Not long ago, Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Putin,
with his Czarist fantasies, seems to live “in another world.” The same can
perhaps be said of Dilma.
