William Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs and former ambassador to the Russian Federation, has a different view of Russia's potential since the war.
Photo: Nikolay Cyiganov
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The State Department Warns
// Resisting the U.S. is dangerous for the Russian economy
A hearing entitled “Russian Aggression against Georgia – Consequences and Responses” was held in the U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. Participants tried to formulate a way to maintain strategic cooperation with Moscow, while opposing Russian policy in the Caucasus. The tone of the discussion was harsh. Congressmen and State Department officials concluded that, if Russia does not restore it international reputation, it will harm its standing in the world and undermine Moscow’s financial successes of recent years. Kommersant correspondent Dmitry Sidorov reports from Washington.
In his opening speech, Christopher Dodd, who is acting chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in place of vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden, was the Russia’s most severe critic among the speakers in the Capitol on Wednesday. According to Dodd, Moscow has set itself the goal of eliminating the Saakashvili regime in Georgia. “There are two ways to undermine, if not topple, a democratic government: either militarily or by crushing and strangling the economy to make life so miserable that the government’s mandate comes into question,” Dodd observed. “Many expert observers believe that, having failed in the first approach, Russia now seems to have shifted to the second.” He added that, if Russia is successful in that effort, it will be a serious blow to democracy in Georgia.
“We simply cannot allow Russia to act like the Soviet Union. We cannot allow them to go around intimidating or toppling democracies,” Dodd opined. If Russia does not restore its reputation as a country that observes international norms both within its borders and beyond them, it will harm its standing in the world and undermine the country’s economic successes of recent years.
Notably, even as Dodd and other senators criticized Russia, they insisted that relations with Russia were vitally important for the United States and for the West as a whole. “Obviously, we want to work with Russia on a wide range of issues. The United States has supported Russia’s attempts to join international organizations and tried to partner with Moscow on a wide range of issues… With integration and success come responsibilities,” Dodd said. He dwelled on the consequences that he thinks threaten Moscow of “failures to play by the rules of the international system” and noted the recent negative tendencies in the Russian economy – the sharp fall in the RTS index, repeated halting trading on the stock market, the outflow of capital from Russia and the growth of risk premiums on investment in Russia.
Dodd mentioned economic conditions in Russia for a reason. A Kommersant source close to the Senate staff said that the goal of the hearings was to get the message across to the Kremlin that “its actions have left the country on the edge of an economic crisis that will have unpredictable consequences.”
Dodd’s claims were reinforced in the hearings by William Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs and former ambassador to the Russian Federation. Burns acknowledged that the war in the Caucasus was the result of mistakes on both sides. “Georgia's decision to use force to reassert its sovereignty over South Ossetia, against our strong and repeated warnings, was short-sighted and ill-advised,” Burns said, while adding that “there was no justification for Russia's disproportionate response.” Burns accused Russia of an ongoing attempt to dismember Georgia, of refusing to implement its decision to withdraw its forces from Georgia, maintaining buffer zones that were not part of settlement agreements and violating UN resolutions on the territorial integrity of Georgia.
Burns’ observations on the Russian economy were more specific than Dodd’s. “At least in part because of the Georgia crisis, Russian financial markets have lost nearly a third of their value, with losses in market capitalization of hundreds of billions of dollars,” Burns said. “Capital is fleeing Russia, with $7 billion leaving on Aug. 8 alone.”
Burns said that Russia’s lost opportunities due to the war may be greater still. He posited a choice of innovation and economic diversity and the development of Russia’s talented population as opposed to stagnation, growing corruption and demographic problems. A Kommersant source close to the State Department said that “Russia has the choice of either remaining in the past or living in the 21st century with the rest of the world, including the U.S.”
Burns’ speech was approved at least by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, so his statements can be considered an explication of the position of the current administration in Washington and its continuation in the future administration of Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain.
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U.S. Ready to Make Friends with Belarus
The United States has made another friendly step toward Belarus. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer told a session of the U.S. Helsinki Commission that Washington is prepared to consider lifting sanctions against Belarus. Kramer said that the U.S. has allowed its citizens and companies to carry out commercial operations with Belarusian enterprises after the recent release of Belarusian political prisoners. The U.S. has never wanted regime change in Belarus, Kramer told the commission. Rather, it wanted the regime to change its behavior and now sees signs of those changes.
This is not the first time the U.S. has made overtures to Minsk since the events in Georgia. Immediately after the war, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs David Merkel visited Minsk. At the beginning of the month, the deputy head of the State Department press service reported that Washington is ready to lift all travel and economy restrictions against Belarusian leaders.
Dmitry Sidorov
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 19, 2008
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