New Russia: Becoming the 'Empire the World Needs' (Izvestia, Russia)
"You can kill an elephant with a needle if you find the deadliest place to stick it. ... International tribunals for Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and
Iraq should be formed. I feel sorry for Obama, but these investigations are
necessary to protect the world from the geopolitical
adventurism of exceptionalist Western elites who have
gone unpunished, and to prevent them from interfering with Russia as it builds
a great new country, developing itself and helping friends and neighbors do so
as well. ... The world needs a good empire, and Russia has every chance and
basis for quickly becoming one."
At the Palais Des Beaux Arts in Brussels, President Obama offers his strongest criticism of Russia's annexation of Crimea, countering the argument that America is hypocritical because of NATO's actions in Kosovo, or its own actions in Iraq, or Mar. 26.
Political
scientist Seraphim Melentyev on what Russia should do
to score a diplomatic victory over the West.
Alexander
Zinoviev, an outstanding Russian sociologist, once opined on how to "kill
an elephant with a needle."
Zinoviev
told a story from his childhood, when gangs of children formed in the
schoolyards of 1930 Moscow and beat up other children to take their money and
things. One day Zinoviev walked out of a shop, where he had purchased a drawing
compass - the one with the pointy leg.
Surrounded
by members of one such gang, more than ten of them, all were older and
stronger. They demanded he turn out his pockets out threatened to beat him.
Zinoviev took out his drawing compass, showed it to them, and said that he would
pierce the eye of the first who touched it.
The
oldest and stronger kid took a step back, and the gang let Zinoviev pass
through. After that, rumors spread about ten-year-old Alexander Zinoviev was a fierce
gangster associated with adult
criminals. He lived in the area for six more years and no one ever harassed him
again. They were afraid.
In
the spring of 2014, tectonic shift occurred in Russian politics. I refer to President
Vladimir Putin’s speech in the Kremlin’s St. George Hall on the return to
Russia of Crimea and Sevastopol [watch below]. In his speech, President Putin, who has called
the collapse of the USSR, "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of 21st
century," publicly acknowledged for the first time the responsibility of
the Russian Federation for the Soviet Union's collapse.
And
the word "Russian" is mentioned 24 times.
The
cost was high. Accepting responsibility for the collapse of a great country, and Putin used this phraseology three times, will lead us to the mission of
building a new nation based on historical Russia. Putin expressed his
intentions in this regard a long time ago - in most detail in an October, 2011 pre-election
column in Izvestia.
In
examining the West's initial reaction to the lightning "Crimean initiative,"
one might miss what is most important. Back in 2012, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton said that the United States would not permit Eurasian reintegration
[i.e.: greater integration of the Commonwealth of Independent States], because that
would mean, under the guise of economic integration, that the Kremlin would
begin a "re-Sovietization."
Clinton
urged the international community "not to make a mistake" because "It's
not going to be called that ... It's going to be called a customs union; it
will be called the Eurasian Union and all of that. But let's make no mistake
about it. We know what the goal is and we are trying to figure out effective
ways to slow it down or prevent it." If Clinton would make such a
bellicose statement, we can only imagine how energetically and with what terms the
actions of Russia are eliciting from U.S. Republicans and neocons.
But
back to Zinoviev. His thesis is that you can kill an elephant with a needle if
you find the deadliest place to stick it. In our case - to disarm the West, deprive
it of the initiative and bind its hands and feet.
Such
a needle is hidden in the history of Western foreign policy for the past 15
years, and which, by the way, Vladimir Putin reminded us about in his March 18 speech.
With no lack of irony, the president thanked Western heads of state and
diplomats for at least sometimes remembering international law, even if they
trampled on it in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
A
reminder to the president: Russian diplomacy should use Zinoviev’s needle to
jab the "Western elephant" so it doesn't interfere with Russia as it
fills its historic space and becomes a world power.
March
24th marked the 15th anniversary of the start of NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia.
For three months, without any reflection about international law and the U.N.
Charter, the United States and NATO destroyed a sovereign state, killed several
thousand people including 800 children, and caused about $100 billion in damage
to the country.
It
would be symbolic if Russian diplomacy, in the form of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia's ambassador to the U.N. VitalyChurkin marked the
anniversary by putting forward a resolution establishing a United Nations
Criminal Tribunal for Kosovo and the former Yugoslavia. Peace and international
law demand an investigation into this "humanitarian" crime and
prosecute those responsible for it.
Posted By
Worldmeets.US
Also,
October 7 is the 13th anniversary of the U.S. and NATO invasion of Afghanistan,
so an International Tribunal for Afghanistan can also be initiated. The ongoing
American operation "Enduring Freedom" deserves a detailed analysis,
since one of its most striking consequences has been the planet-wide phenomenon
of Afghan drug production. Heroin production in Afghanistan has risen 44 fold,
while over the last decade, the number of global deaths amounted to almost a
million people. Why is this not an international crime against humanity?
At
the tribunal for Afghanistan, a question should be raised: Who is responsible
for giving NATO command of the International Security Assistance Force in
Afghanistan, which occurred in August 2003? That way, it becomes possible to end
the substitution of NATO for the United Nations, which poses a threat to the security
of all countries and peoples. The main goal -rather than to share a smoke with the
Americans on their mega bases, the purpose of which is demonstrably not to
create stability - would be to force the U.S. and NATO to finance alternative
development programs in Afghanistan to drastically reduce drug production.
Next. In March
2015, the question of an International Tribunal for Iraq should be raised. Remember
Colin Powell's test tube [of anthrax] and other "facts?" It is time
to make those who initiated the Iraq War answer for the millions of Iraqi dead.
Finally,
an appropriate international investigation into the Libya intervention should once
and for all put an end to the doctrine of "humanitarian intervention"
that in March 2011, as prime minister, Vladimir Putin, during a conversation
with workers at a Votkinsk factory, called a "crusade."
This
proposed series of Russian diplomatic initiatives would turn the remainder of
Barack Obama's term into a daily nightmare.
Of
course, I feel sorry for Obama, but these investigations are not necessary if
we are to break the psychological balance of power held by Western leaders.
These investigations are needed primarily to protect the world from the
geopolitical adventurism of exceptionalist Western elites
who have gone unpunished, and to prevent them from interfering with Russia as
it builds a great new country, developing itself and helping friends and
neighbors do so as well.
The
world needs a good empire, and Russia has every chance and basis for quickly becoming
one.
