Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov (left) tried to sympathize with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates (right), but the Russian Foreign Ministry did not forgive the American for his statements. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is in the center, in Seville, Spain, February 9, 2007.
Photo: AP
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Unlikely Opponents
// The Russian Foreign Ministry demands an answer
Moscow has demanded an official explanation from Washington of statements made by Pentagon chief Robert Gates that practically listed Russia among likely opponents of the United States. Kommersant learned yesterday from the Russian Foreign Ministry that it perceives the statement as unfriendly and it does not intend to let the matter slide. That evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke of the same subject, expressing indignation that Washington was using “the nonexistent Russian threat to shake money out of the U.S. Congress.”
Sorting Out Relations
They thought for four days in the Russian Foreign Ministry before responding to the U.S. secretary of defense. Gates made the statement that offended Moscow last Thursday explaining to American congressmen the need to increase military spending. He stated that the American Army not only needs to be reinforced in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it need to be ready for large-scale conflicts, including with Russia. “We need a complete range of military opportunities, including ground forces to fight against big armies and flexible units to stage special operations in the anti-terrorism war,” said Gates. “We don't know how this will play out in places such as Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.”
The Foreign Ministry responded on Monday evening. “We of course paid attention to the American secretary's words, all the more so since it is not the first time recently that high-placed representatives of the U.S. military and intelligence community have made statements about Russia that have caused us perplexity,” the Foreign Ministry statement reads. “It is hard to escape the impression that all these statements have a place in a system of negative valuations of our country.” The Foreign Ministry decided to find out through the U.S. Embassy in Moscow whether Gates opinions correspond with those of the American administration and reflect Washington's official position. Russia was the only country mentioned by Gates to take umbrage to his words. China, for example, paid no attention to them.
“We are waiting for the American side to explain the behavior of its secretary,” a Kommersant source in the Foreign Ministry department of information and press said. “Everything he says is a statement by an official. Our enquiry has been given to U.S. Ambassador Burns, and we are counting on receiving an answer through him.” When asked why it took the Foreign Ministry so long to formulate its thoughts, the high-placed diplomat answered that it took time to analyze Gates' statement.
The U.S. embassy declined to comment on the enquiry about Gates. A Kommersant source in the U.S. State Department said that it had not received any enquiries, neither written or oral. “Most likely, the Russians limited themselves to a political statement that did not anticipate any further steps,” the source commented.
Cooling Relations
Notably, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov was the first to respond to Gates' words. At an informal meeting between the Council of Russia and NATO in Seville on February 9, Ivanov noted in a friendly manner that he understands his colleague, who was making a pitch for additional funding for his agency. “I understand that as a defense minister,” he said. “When the budget is introduced in congress, you want it approved. Therefore, they make a variety of moves.”
At the time, it looked as though the incident was over. But no. Russian President Vladimir Putin added fuel to the fire on Saturday at the conference on security in Munich, harshly criticizing the U.S. and NATO for “disdain for the principles of international law” and unjustified use of force against other countries. Almost immediately after that, he walked up to Gates, slapped him on the shoulder and invited him to visit Moscow. But that did not save him from the wrath of the Foreign Ministry, which obviously interpreted Putin's Munich speech as a call to action and decided that the time had come to take Gates to task for his incautious statements. “We understand that Gates has to drive his budget through,” a Foreign Ministry source told Kommersant. “It is possible that that was a consciously polemic approach. But it has to be understood that his words were clearly unfriendly and they cannot let slip.”
Russia and the U.S. have not turned to such ostentatiously official means of sorting out their relations as a diplomatic enquiry for a long time and the Foreign Ministry's current demand is evidence of how much relations between Moscow and Washington have deteriorated in the last year and a half. Before that, the leaders of the two countries tried to solve all problem issues between themselves. Now both sides are willing to make accusations against the other in public.
The turning point was the speech by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney at the Common Vision for Common Neighborhood conference in Vilnius on May 4 of last year on relations between Russia and the West. He criticized Kremlin domestic and foreign policy and accused Moscow of “blackmail,” “intimidation,” “undermining the territorial integrity of its neighbors” and “interference in democratic processes.” Cheney's speech was the sharpest criticism made of Russia since the Cold War. It was compared to Winston Churchill's Fulton Speech. The general idea behind Cheney's speech was that, if Russia does not change its ways and correct the mistakes listed, it risks turning from an ally to an opponent of the U.S.
Putin accepted the challenge. On May 10, speaking before the Federal Assembly, the president answered Washington personally, albeit with veiled phrases. “We should not repeat the mistakes of the Soviet Union,” he said, “the mistakes of the Cold War era, neither in politics nor in defense strategy. You must build out own house together, strong and dependable, because we see what is happening in the world. As they say, Comrade Wolf knows who to eat. He is eating, but no one hears it. Nor do they plan on hearing, it seems.”
Last September, Putin gave up using metaphors in relation to the West. After Russian officers were arrested in Georgia, the Russian president stated openly that Georgian authorities were operating “under the patronage of foreign sponsors,” hinting that Russia's real opponent was not Georgia but the U.S.
Last Saturday at the Munich conference, Putin made it clear that Moscow and Washington are on different sides of the barricades. The depth of the Russian president's personal offense at Gates became clear during his visit to Jordan, when he stated that “they even talked about a nonexistent threat from Russia to garner money for Iraq and Afghanistan. I don't understand why they had to use the anti-Russian card to solve their domestic political problems.”
Vladimir Solovyev; Dmitry Sidorov, Washington
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 14, 2007
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