Before Our Very
Eyes: Russia Turns 'Global Pariah' (Yezhednevny Zhurnal, Russia)
"Events in
Ukraine have brought a process that began 15 years ago to its logical
conclusion. … Back then you will recall, Russia insisted that its role on the
international stage was to represent the 'civilized world' when dealing with the
so-called 'rogue states' of Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan - states whose
actions threatened to destroy the existing world order. ... As the years have
passed, Russia has come less to represent civilized states than rogue ones, and
to defend rogue states and their interests before the civilized states. … The
West has forgotten how it co-existed with the Soviet Union through the use of deterrence.
Now it will have to remember."
The shelling of residential areasin Mariupol
which killed severaldozen residents in January ended hopesthat Russiawould be able toreturn to the communityof civilized nations any time in the foreseeable future.Before our very eyes, our country is turninginto a globalpariah.
Against the backdrop of renewed hostilities in south and
east Ukraine, the Russian public paid little attention to Defense Minister
Sergei Shoigu's recent visit to Iran. In practical
terms there was nothing sensational about it. Moscow only hinted at the
possibility of renewing a contract for the sale of S-300 air defense systems to
Tehran, although officially the question was never discussed. Officials signed a
vague agreement providing for military cooperation involving for the most part
symbolic gestures such as exchanges of delegations, port visits of naval
vessels and the like.
However in some cases, words are more important than
specifics. Iranian Defense Minister HosseinDehghan announced after the talks with Shoigu:
"Emphasis was placed on the need for cooperation between Russia and Iran
in their joint struggle against interference by non-regional forces,"
he said. Dehghan made no secret of who the
"non-regional forces" he referred to are. According to him, all the
trouble is due to the "destructive U.S. policy of interfering in the
internal affairs of other countries."
Like it or not, Shoigu's visit allowed
the Iranians to actually declare Russia an ally in countering the United
States. This was the first time in my memory that a rogue state openly referred
to Russia as an ally - and that Moscow didn't seem to mind. Thus, the events in
Ukraine have brought a process that began 15 years ago to its logical
conclusion.
Back then you will recall, Russia insisted that its role on
the international stage was to represent the "civilized world" when dealing
with the so-called "rogue states" of Iran, North Korea and
Afghanistan - states whose actions threatened to destroy the existing world
order.
Before that, the Soviet Union was willing to support any
state - from communists to cannibals - willing to declare its intentions to
follow the socialist path, so Moscow had inherited extensive contacts with such
countries. The new approach failed almost immediately.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il promised
President Vladimir Putin he would cease missile testing, but no sooner had
Putin announced his great diplomatic victory than the North Korean dictator
announced he had been joking. Leaders of rogue states may be many things, but
they aren't fools. They understand that when the time comes to surrender their
position, it should certainly not be to Moscow. It should be to a power that
can immediately reward them for their actions. That is, Washington or Brussels.
As the years have passed, Russia has come less to represent civilized
states than rogue ones, and to defend rogue states and their interests before
the civilized states. The final step in that metamorphosis occurred during Shoigu's recent visit to Tehran. Now Russia has irrevocably
moved into the rogue camp.
I would suggest that now, after the annexation of Crimea and
outbreak of war in southern and eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin now meets all the
criteria of a rogue state. First of all this is due the presence of a nationalist
dogma for the sake of which leaders will deliberately sacrifice the interests
of the citizens they represent.
Iran follows the dogma of radical and fundamentalist Islam,
in North Korea the dogma centers on "Juche,"
which is in fact a cult of Oriental despotism. In today's Russia it is imperialism
tied to Orthodox Christianity, which considers that the military annexation of
part of a neighboring state is justified by the fact that at the Crimean Chersonesos, Prince Vladimir [958-1015
AD] was baptized when he brought Orthodoxy to that part of the world.
The main thing is that Vladimir Putin, like the Iranian
Ayatollahs and North Korean dictators, is all-too prepared to sacrifice the
welfare of the population for the sake of vaguely defined "national
interests," which are in fact a mixture of hypertrophic national pride
and the inferiority complexes of the nation's leader. Today, for the sake of this
combustible mixture, people in the Donbass are being
killed.
Apparently Putin felt stung when French and German leaders
refused to meet him in Kazakhstan's capital of Astana last December. Until recently,
however, the Kremlin seems to have thought: if we allow the separatist to just
a few more people, those weak-kneed Europe will lift the sanctions.
Moreover, even the relative success of a recent meeting of
German, French, Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers
wasn't enough to prevent the advance of separatists equipped with arms and ammunition
from Russia. After all, the Kremlin has finally realized that its goal of
"federalizing Ukraine" (under which Moscow would exercise complete
control over Donbass and Kiev) is practically unattainable.
If so, one must utilize the dominant resource: the lives of citizens in Donetsk
and Mariupol. The Kremlin is well aware that the
"weak" leaders of the U.S. and Western Europe find seeing women and
children dying under fire from Grad rockets unbearable. The only way to stop it? … Agree to Russia's proposal. Again there is the key issue
that makes Russia a pariah: the Kremlin's willingness to pay for its ambitions
and prejudices with people's lives.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
Then there's what makes Russia different from other rogue
states: it is a former superpower which maintains the world's second-largest
nuclear arsenal. Today, Putin exploits the fact that no one knows what to do when
a major nuclear power violates all international agreements. The West has
forgotten how it co-existed with the Soviet Union through the use of deterrence.
Now it will have to remember ...
*Alexander Golts is deputy editor of YezhednevnyZhurnal.
