“Russia, for its part, is keenly aware that Serbia is being treated the way Washington wants to treat Moscow, if only it could.”
by Nebojsa Malic (pictured)
Shadows of the Cold War stalked the German spa resort of Heiligendamm this week, as the annual G-8 summit got underway. Relations between Russia and the United States have grown steadily worse for months. The latest animosity can be traced to Washington’s belligerent insistence on severing the occupied province of Kosovo from Serbia, and deploying anti-missile installations in eastern Europe, ostensibly to protect the U.S. from “rogue states.”
Washington points the finger at Moscow, blaming president Vladimir Putin for being an “autocrat” and “authoritarian,” undermining democracy, stifling opposition and conducting a belligerent foreign policy. The same reporters and thinktanks who clamored for an illegal invasion of Iraq because “Saddam had WMDs” are now expounding on Russia’s belligerence and threat to peace, freedom, and puppies.
One reason, certainly, is the dominance f “neoconservatives” in the U.S. ruling circles – people who clawed their way to power in the 1980s by harping about the (nonexistent) new threats from the Soviet Union and a need for a more “assertive” policy. Faced with the ongoing disaster that is the “War on Terror” – conveniently not mentioned by name any more – the neocons revert to type and seek a new conflict, this time with Moscow.Russia Resurgent
The neocons have hated Vladimir Putin for years, mostly because he refused to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor. When Boris Yeltsin died in mid-April, he was eulogized in the West as a hero of democracy and liberator of the Russian people. In Russia itself, the reaction was far different, as Russians remembered an age of oligarchs, economic privation, lawlessness and humiliation. For while Moscow’s military power commanded respect and fear during the Cold War, in its aftermath Russia was reduced to a helpless observer as Washington fashioned an American Empire across the entire world.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was the 1999 NATO attack on Serbia, waged not only against the UN charter but also against NATO’s own founding document. NATO was revealed not as a defensive pact, but an aggressive vehicle of the United States for achieving global hegemony. And thanks to the years of enlargement contrary to promises made to Moscow, it sat right on Russia’s doorstep.
It is 1999 no longer. Russia has become much stronger economically and politically, thanks in part to its natural resources but also because of Putin’s internal reforms that have cracked down on crime, corruption and abuses of power. Most importantly, it was no longer willing to acquiesce to demands from Washington, but demanded to be treated as an equal.
In February, President Putin gave a speech at a conference in Munich, accusing the U.S. of attempting to become the world hegemon. “The United States has overstepped its borders in all spheres – economic, political and humanitarian, and has imposed itself on other states,” he said (BBC). This much is manifestly obvious to the casual observer. Yet the U.S. response was denial, followed by accusations of Russian belligerence!
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=11092