Germany thwarts US schemes re/Russia

2008-09-01

Richard Moore

This article is interesting in that it gives us statements from several EU leaders, revealing their positions re/ dealing with Russia. Germany, the dominant EU power, seems to be taking a very sensible attitude:

     …UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown called in a newspaper article for a fundamental review of relations with Russia to prevent further “Russian aggression”. But German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said unilateral actions by both Russia and Georgia had worsened the crisis.

     Speaking earlier in the week, Mr Steinmeier rejected the idea of sanctions, saying “someone should first tell me what a sanction against Russia could be”. “Particularly in such a serious political situation, it is necessary to show a bit of common sense,” he said. “We will continue to have Russia as our neighbour also beyond the current day, and it is in our own interest to return to a normal relationship.”

This is very encouraging. Germany seems to be rejecting Washington’s framing of the situation, and acting instead out of common sense and its own national welfare. If Germany maintains this perspective, and if the US continues stirring up trouble, that could lead to a a more general strategic policy split between Washington and Berlin. We can’t extrapolate that far from this one episode, but if it did happen it would be a very good thing.
In the days of the Cold War we had a bipolar world. The US and the USSR were the only big geopolitical players, and most other nations lined up with one camp or the other. 
     Since the fall of the USSR, the US has been spearheading a campaign to create a unipolar world, what some refer to as the new world order, or a one-world government. Economic globalization, the WTO and IMF, increased UN interventionism, unilateral US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the neocons and their PNAC agenda, the centralization of EU power in Brussels, the expansion eastward of the EU and NATO – these are all pieces of a very comprehensive campaign. The primary instigators of this campaign are of course the usual suspects, the elite financial families mainly to be found in New York and London (The City). 
This campaign seemed to be on a roll for quite a while, particularly in the years following Desert Storm and the fall of the Soviet Union. The situation has change dramatically since then. We now have a multi-polar world, with the US, China, and Russia being the big players. The US has been rather successful so far in keeping the EU on-side, and that’s been very important in enabling Washington to get by with its various adventures and aggressions.
If Germany and some of its EU partners were to split from the US camp, and pursue independent and pragmatic agendas, that would be a very healthy geopolitical development. It would then be clear to all that the only trouble-maker in the neighborhood is the US, which would no longer be able to claim that it acted as the agent of the ‘international community’. 
rkm
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7590642.stm

Russia stands by Georgia actions

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said his decision to recognise Georgia’s breakaway regions as independent is irrevocable.

On the eve of a special EU summit on Georgia, he warned that Russia was ready to retaliate against any sanctions the EU might impose.

Germany and the UK have differed in tone over how the EU should proceed, with Berlin warning against escalation.

Moscow’s envoy to London said sanctions would hurt the EU more than Russia.

Ambassador Yuri Fedotov told the BBC that Russia did not want any further confrontation and was not seeking a new Cold War.

He was speaking after UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown called in a newspaper article for a fundamental review of relations with Russia to prevent further “Russian aggression”.

But German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said unilateral actions by both Russia and Georgia had worsened the crisis.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili urged EU leaders not to “give up faced with [Russia’s] dirty attempt at aggression”.

While EU leaders are expected to boost support for Georgia and warn Russia there can be no business as usual after its actions, the summit will stop short of calling for sanctions amid divisions between the EU’s 27 member states, the BBC’s Oana Lungescu reports.

Russia’s four-day war with Georgia began on 7 August when Georgia tried to regain control of its breakaway South Ossetia province by force and Russia counter-attacked deep into Georgia.

‘Equal partner’

Speaking to Russian TV channels in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Mr Medvedev also promised military and economic aid to Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

On the possibility of sanctions against Russia, he said:

“We do not favour sanctions on the whole and only resort to them in extreme circumstances. [But] if required, we could pass the relevant legislation.”

The EU gets about a quarter of its natural gas from Russia, which is also a major oil exporter.

Russia’s ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, told Reuters news agency Moscow had no plans to use energy supplies as a political tool, and said the prospect of any EU sanctions was “highly improbable”.

Ambassador Fedotov told the BBC that “any sanctions [would] hurt the European Union first of all much more than Russia”.

Mr Fedotov also argued that the world needed to understand what the modern, post-Soviet Russia was about.

“Russia wants to be an equal partner… but the partnership should not be the kind of partnership between the horseman and horse, but of two equal individuals,” he said.

‘Beyond the current day’

Georgian demonstrators are planning to hold rallies in Tbilisi and in other European capitals to coincide with the special EU summit in Brussels when it opens at 1100 GMT on Monday.

It was called by France, which currently chairs the EU and brokered a peace deal between Russia and Georgia.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told the BBC that Paris did not support sanctions but the views of all EU members would have to be taken into account.

“The situation is very difficult and… we must be firm on our position in offering a line defending, of course, territorial integrity of Georgia,” he said.

Mr Brown said both the EU and Nato should review their ties with Russia

“When Russia has a grievance over an issue such as South Ossetia, it should act multilaterally by consent rather than unilaterally by force,” he said.

“My message to Russia is simple: If you want to be welcome at the top table of organisations such as the G8, OECD and WTO, you must accept that with rights come responsibilities.”

Germany’s foreign minister said that “the dangerous spiral of violence [over Georgia] must be stopped”.

“We need a strong and sensible European role to allow a return to reason and responsibility,” he said.

Speaking earlier in the week, Mr Steinmeier rejected the idea of sanctions, saying “someone should first tell me what a sanction against Russia could be”.

“Particularly in such a serious political situation, it is necessary to show a bit of common sense,” he said.

“We will continue to have Russia as our neighbour also beyond the current day, and it is in our own interest to return to a normal relationship.”

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2008/08/31 18:32:26 GMT
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