Brother Bear Growls at US Hypocrisy


The Research Intelligence Unit – www.riunit.com

The following article is edited from research conducted by K. Gajendra Singh, former Indian ambassador (retired), to Turkey and Azerbaijan, Jordan, Romania and Senegal. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies

Ever since Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ended the cold war in 1989, more out of naiveté than misplaced goodwill, the Russian have not dared to attack the US and the West due to overbearing problems at home. Marking a break from a period of Russian weakness on the world stage, President Putin unleashed a verbal assault on the US led West and its march towards a uni-polar new world order during a discourse in Munich earlier this month. It was the first blunt criticism of the US unleashed rampant forces trying to coerce the whole world to its will for total domination while using brazen lies and illegal, brutal and inhuman means.

While calling a spade a spade Russian leader Putin was only articulating what a majority of peoples in the world think of US policies. A BBC poll covering more than 26,000 people in 25 countries, including the U.S., held in November - January, found that 49 per cent believe U.S. playing "mainly
negative" role in the world, compared to 32 per cent who said it was "mainly positive." In 18 countries asked the same question earlier, which had called U.S. influence positive, it fell from 40 per cent in 2005, to 36 per cent last year, to 29 per cent in 2007. In Germany and Indonesia, nearly three out of four respondents had a mainly negative opinion of U.S. influence while it was 69 per cent in France and Turkey.

Nearly 73 per cent disapproved of Washington's role in the Iraq war. In Egypt, France, and Lebanon where more than three out of four respondents "strongly disapproved", while more than 68 per cent said the U.S. military presence in the Middle East provokes more conflict than it prevents."

Even in US, 57 per cent disapprove of their government's handling of the Iraq war and of the Israeli-Hezbollah war; while 60 per cent disapproved of its handling of Guantanamo detainees; and 53 per cent believed the U.S. military presence provokes more conflict than it prevents.

"These days the U.S. government hardly seems to be able to do anything right," said Steven Kull, director of the University of Maryland who coordinated the poll.

Era of confidence

Putin's speech marks a new era in Russia's new found confidence after seven years of his rule which has brought stability and economic strength. He recently visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan, to mark the first ever visits by a Russian head of state. With Middle East in a state of flux and USA bogged down in Iraq with no clear cut exit policy, Saudi Arabia and others in the region are looking elsewhere to counter irrational US policies.

Unlike 1991, when Gorbachev's peace initiative to help resolve the problem if Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, was brushed aside by Washington, Moscow is now better positioned to play a vital and constructive role in the region. Exchange of Presidential visits with Syria two years ago, writing off of old Syrian debts of almost $10 billion and supply of missiles to deter arrogant Israeli jets buzzing the Presidential Palace in Damascus have almost restored the old relationship. Historical enemies Russia and Turkey have made up and have booming economic exchanges.

Moscow is now ready to play a role of reliable and honest broker in Arab Israeli dispute with its excellent relations with Tel Aviv and PLO and even Hamas which was received in Moscow, soon after it was elected to power. Moscow's strengthened relations with Tehran with its support at the UN andsupply of missiles, arms and building of nuclear power plants. The possibility to create an informal gas OPEC also gives Russia an important role and Putin has worked towards it assiduously.

"I see in ... Putin a statesman and a man of peace and fairness," said Saudi King Abdullah according to official Saudi Press Agency. "That's why the kingdom of Saudi Arabia extends a hand of friendship to Russia.". Qatar has the world's third-largest natural gas reserves after Russia and Iran while Russia is second largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia. They could consult each other on oil and gas prices.

Putin's warm reception in Riyadh, Qatar and Amman is harbinger of Russia's growing influence in the region and desire of the unnerved states in the region for a bulwark against USA's destructive policies, which could unleash a terrible Shia-Sunni conflagration in the region and beyond. The Arabs and Muslims have seen through US policies!

Middle East and the Muslim world is learning to trust Putin's Russia It was granted observer status in the Organization of the Islamic Conference in 2005, and in 2006 the Russia-Muslim World Strategic Vision Group was established.

Before embarking on his tour of the Middle East, in an interview with the popularAl-Jazeera TV, Putin said that the new U.S. strategy in Iraq will work only if a date for withdrawal of foreign military forces was agreed upon. The U.S. has officially declared
that it plans to hand over full authority, primarily in the law enforcement and security areas, to Iraqi agencies. UK’s Blair has already announced the withdrawal of UK troops from the South and is expected to detail the plan in parliament this week.

The Munich discourse

Putin's audience in Munich comprised of dozens of Western ministers and policy makers, including the new US Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, and the hawkish Republican Presidential contender, Senator John McCain.

Putin stated; "Today we are observing unrestrained, hypertrophied use of force in international affairs, a force that plunges the world into an abyss of recurring conflicts." "I am convinced that the UN Charter is the only legitimate decision-making mechanism for the use of military force as a last resort," he said. "The UN must not be replaced either by NATO or the European Union," adding that NATO's eastward expansion has nothing to do with its modernization and would affect Moscow's relations with the Alliance.

Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - joined NATO in 2004. Georgia and Ukraine, which saw US franchised street gangs, financed, trained and supported by Washington and its so called democracy promoting institutions and NGOs, install US puppets in power (both are in trouble now) are being encouraged to join NATO. Russia
strongly objects to the deployment of NATO bases on the territory of newly admitted member nations. Reports suggest that Romanian and Bulgarian bases could be used if Iran was attacked.

Putin added that the main threat facing Russia, the U.S. and Europe derives from international terrorism, which can only be fought jointly. "What is a uni-polar world? No matter how we beautify this term it means one single centre of power, one single centre of force and one single master," clarified Putin.

He stated that deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in Central Europe could trigger a new spiral of the arms race. US reasons for deploying a missile defense system in Europe are not convincing enough. Launching of North Korean ballistic missiles against the U.S across Western Europe would be in conflict with the laws of ballistics, "or, as we say in Russia, it's the like trying to reach your left ear with your right hand," he clarified.

He also called on the international community to resume dialogue on nuclear non-proliferation. "Russia speaks for the resumption of dialogue on this most important issue. It's necessary to preserve stability of the international legal disarmament base, and ensure the continuity of the nuclear arms reduction process," he said.

"We are seeing increasing disregard for the fundamental principles of international law," said Putin. The United States had repeatedly overstepped its national borders on questions of international security, a policy he said had made the world less, not more, safe. "Unilateral, illegitimate actions have not solved a single problem; they have become a hotbed of further conflicts,"
"One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way," asserted Putin.

Putin added that force should only be used when the option is backed by the United Nations Security Council. "This is very dangerous. Nobody feels secure any more because nobody can hide behind international law," he said.

Putin also said the increased use of force was "causing an arms race with the desire of countries to get nuclear weapons." He did not name the countries but quite obviously these are North Korea, even Iran and many Arab states to counter Israel's arsenal of hundreds of nuclear bombs and means to deliver them.

While sanctions were passed against India and Pakistan in May, 1998, after they went nuclear, any enquiry or action against Israel is regularly vetoed by USA in New York and Vienna.

Arabs extend welcome

Arab world has welcomed President Putin's Middle East visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan .Arab experts feel that the primary aim is to "send a message" to the US that Moscow has a key role to play in this vital region and that it is high time for Washington to give up its policies of domination and destruction.

"By carrying out this exceptional trip, I believe Putin is at pains to dispatch a message to the United States that the Middle East is not a backyard for Washington, but a vital area for the whole world," Faisal al-Rofou, head of the political science department at the University of Jordan, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. In Jordan and most Arab countries such comments have the governments' approval.

Al-Rofou remarked that the Russian leader's Munich comments indicated Moscow was "fed up with the domination polices of George Bush.". "Putin is heir to the legacy of a great state - the Soviet Union - and although Moscow's role has receded over the past few years, the Russian leader wants to say that it is high time for Moscow to play that great part again in the affairs of the Middle East and the world at large," he said. "Therefore, his Middle East trip seeks to drive the idea home that we are present in this part of the world and the United States should recognize others' interests in the region," he added.

Putin's visit would "add significance" to the agreement concluded in Mecca with Saudi brokerage between the key Palestinian factions of Fatah and Hamas. Against Israeli protests Moscow had also received a Hamas delegation, soon after it won in a free democratic election.

"We count on the Russian support for ensuring a lift of the Western embargo that was imposed on the Palestinian Authority in March" in the wake of the landslide victory scored by Hamas , al-Rofou said.

During the last Mideast Quartet meeting in Washington at the beginning of this month, the Russian delegate urged a speedy end of the boycott of the Hamas-led government which he said came to office through the ballots. US led West remains opposed to Hamas as only pro-West puppets are acceptable. So much for Western proclaimed love for democracy. Besides Russia, the quartet also includes the US, the E U and the U. N.

Qadri Saeed, at the Cairo-based al-Ahram Strategic Studies, believes that Moscow "stood a good chance of influencing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through its balanced ties with both Fatah and Hamas on one side and between the Palestinians and Israel on the other".

"In face of the receding US influence in the region due to setbacks in Iraq and other areas, the Russians now feel they can occupy the ensuing vacuum in the region," he concluded.

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