Anti-Americanism
for Russian Public Consumption Only
"Like
all anti-Westernism, the anti-Americanism of the current authorities is
laughable and pathetic. Their foreign exchange is kept in the United States,
their children are taught in England and they buy villas in France and Spain. …
only the simple minded now take a military confrontation with the United States
seriously. This national idea is intended specifically for the kind of 'people'
that those at the top, evidently, consider us to be."
Russian
authorities consistently throw fuel on the fire of the anti-American sentiments
of the people. The United States, particularly in a time of crisis, is
perfectly suited to the role of the chief global villain.
Everything is
blamed on America. First, Americans robbed us of Alaska. Then they didn't allow
us to “catch up” and moreover, they “surpassed” us and threatened us with
atomic bombs and attacked our friends - Vietnam, Cuba, Iraq. The evil empire
during Soviet times, it nurtured consumerism and other foreign evils and then
completely broke up the Soviet Union. And now by inciting “orange
revolutions," it's even displacing Russia from the former Soviet
republics. And the global [financial] crisis, according to [first deputy chief
of staff to President Medvedev] Vladislav
Surkov, is a “wave of impoverishment coming from the West.” Even the protests in Primorye
are organized by Americans; at least, that's what Duma Members Belokonev
and Ivanov say. Former Murmansk Governor Yury
Yevdokimov, it turns out, wanted to sell his province
to the United States. All in all, “we are surrounded on all sides by evil
vipers. Comrades, we are in the middle of a ring of fire!”
[Editor's Note:
The line, "In
a ring of fire" is a quote from a work by Soviet revolutionary poet Demiyan Bedniy].
Russia's
sale of Alaska to the United States was accompanied by
this
check for $7.2 million. It is said the sale went ahead because
Russia
feared losing the territory without compensation, either to
The image of America as a
global evil is the legacy of years of Soviet propaganda (American aid to hunger
victims in Povolzhye, the role of American specialists in the success of the
first five
year plans and the [WW II] Lend Lease Program
were hushed up). And all of this is superimposed on Russia’s loss of its status
as a great power on par with the United States. Moreover, the real outrages
committed by the U.S., such as the war against Serbia, often exacerbate
anti-American sentiment. And yet, one cannot discount the active role of the
government, which consistently throws fuel on the
fire of anti-Americanism. Within Russia's governing apparatus, there are
factions that are clearly attempting to make this a national focus of
attention.
Is it possible that the
Russian government, which abounds in chekists[the Cheka was the original Soviet state security agency],
suffers phobias inherited from Soviet times? At first glance, it is. Moscow has
been adopting allies hostile to the United States - the Cuban, Venezuelan,
Bolivian regimes, and attempts, albeit without much success, to befriend China
and Iran.
President
Medvedev announces: by 2011, Russia, in response to unceasing threats to its
national security, will begin a “large-scale rearmament” of the Army and Navy.
Our “friend” Hugo Chavez invites our strategic bombers to fly to Venezuela for
a visit - and Russia's jingoistic patriots are thrilled. The authorities speak
of creating aircraft carrier groups, fifth generation fighter aircraft
“unparalleled anywhere in the world,” tanks and grenade launchers that can
pierce any material in the world. America, tremble!
But America
doesn’t tremble. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal call
Medvedev’s statements “warlike rhetoric” meant for domestic consumption. Is
this the arrogance of self-assured Americans, confident in their power? Far
from it. It's simply that from the United States, it's perfectly clear what is
veiled behind Moscow’s threatening statements. The government doesn't intend to
use all of our “unparalleled” miracles of military technology - even to exert
psychological pressure on its transatlantic opponent.
With a sense of pride, we are
told how many millions of dollars our weapons export contracts are worth; but
next to these statistics, the supply of military equipment to our own forces
are ridiculously small. Over the last seven years the army received only 114
new T-90 tanks, 20 SU-27 fighter aircraft, seven SU-25 attack fighters, three TU-160 bombers, four MI-28H “Night Hunter” attack
helicopters, and two KA-50
attack helicopters -enough, perhaps, for an army the size of Guinea-Bissau's,
but certainly not a country that aspires to become a great power.
Moreover, the T-90 is just a
reengineered old T-72, in every respect decidedly inferior to the new NATO
machines, except in terms of speed on a well-paved highway, a feature totally
unnecessary in a tank. And where these machines will be needed is also unclear:
in South Ossetia, our troops used not just T-72s, but also the ancient T-62,
which should have gone to recycling long ago. Somehow or another, the KA-52 and
MI-28 weren't noticed in the skies over South Ossetia - it seems, they're being
kept for parades at the Tushino
Airport. As far as aircraft carriers, there's nothing to say: there is
nowhere to build them. Carriers of this caliber used to be built in Nikolaev [Ukraine]; the plants
that remain in Russia have neither the proper equipment nor the production
know-how.
The sad experience of the
August war [against Georgia] testifies to the authorities level of attention to
the nation's defense capabilities: the 58th army, located at the most critical
region along the [Russia-Georgia] border, lacked modern military technology,
communications, or proper air support.
And if there was none of that
in the Caucuses, where could it possibly be? Moreover, the development of the
conflict shows that there were no plans to carry out military action, although
the situation in the region had been escalating for months. The convoy of
armored vehicles slowly crawling through the mountains - these were shots that
astonished military experts: only in throes of hopelessness would one dispatch
tanks to fight in the mountains. And what if the Georgians had decided to
resist a little and sent out a few attack aircraft and helicopters against our
tanks and simply launched a few of air strikes? The highway by the Rokskiy
Tunnel would have become a graveyard for armor - and thousands of our soldiers
and officers.
All of these outrages are not
criticisms of the Army. It develops operational plans when it receives the
appropriate orders and fights with the technology it is given. Throughout the
oil and gas boom of the last decade, the Army's fighting capability continued
to deteriorate - as the roar of jingoist, patriotic slogans and continuous TV
coverage of roaring aircraft and tanks grew. But militant anti-American
rhetoric not backed up with an “iron fist” is just empty words.
Perhaps all of this is due to
carelessness and corruption? It's nothing of the sort. At the very top, no one
is concerned about defense capacities and the military-industrial complex is
viewed solely as a source of foreign exchange earnings. It's impossible to know
who came up with the idea to convert the GLONASS satellite navigation
system into a commercial venture - a competitor of the American GPS [Global
Positioning System], but it's quite revealing: a purely military tracking
system pushed to make profit? The fact that from a technical point of view this
is insanity is a separate discussion: What's important here is that our most
senior officials thought of GLONASS only in connection with a desire to
commercialize it.
[Putin's dog]
Connie the Labrador's collar was equipped with GLONASS, but the tanks, it
seems, got left behind … And how must one interpret the recent statement by
Minister of Industry Viktor Khristenko regarding the fifth generation fighters?
“Already this year, we will put a fifth generation fighter wing into service,”
Khristenko said during an interview withItogi. Really? Will our air force receive the new aircraft? No. It
turns out that the head of Minpromtorg (the Ministry of Industry and
Trade) isn't paying this any thought. “These projects won't be needed by then.
This is a market!” Khristenko exclaimed. Meaning, the “Russian Stealth” fighter
will be received by the air forces of China, India or Venezuela - the “top”
thinks only about exports.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Before our very eyes, our
military is turning into an aimless mass of people that soon, will probably not
be able to stand up to other armies - not only of developed countries, but even
those of developing states that are concerned about defense. One might recall
outrageous “reforms” like the liquidation of the Berdsk Special Force Brigade,
considered one of the few Russian brigades or divisions prepared for immediate
deployment. And the reform of divisions begins, for some reason, not with the
many incomplete, undertrained, under-armed brigades, but with the most capable
divisions, Tamansk and Kantmirovsk, which will leave them unprepared for
immediate deployment for a long time to come. Why is this? The reason is
simple: the aforementioned Special Forces brigade and two elite divisions are …
too expensive. Let's dress up the parade divisions in flamboyant uniforms by
Yudashkin; as for all else, we will “reform” to the point of extinction - there
you have the meaning of the words, "reforming the Army."
Like all anti-Westernism, the
anti-Americanism of the current authorities is laughable and pathetic. Their
foreign exchange is kept in the United States, their children are taught in
England and they buy villas in France and Spain.
Moscow doesn't want to fight
anyone (and thank goodness!), but it does need a capable army - Russia has no
allies and does have external threats (from China, Islamic extremists who are
completely capable of taking power in, for instance, Uzbekistan). And only the
simple minded now take a military confrontation with the United States
seriously - those for whom parades are held and photos of tanks and planes are
flashed on TV screens.
“The people eat it up,” as
cynical PR agents used to say during the 1990s. The country’s leadership lives
in a completely different world, without the thought of anti-Americanism or
Russia as a great power. This national idea is intended specifically for the
kind of “people” that those at the top, evidently, consider us to be.
