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The Hands that Rock the Boat
// Who is Really Behind the Worsening of US-Russian Relations
The unusually sharp remarks aimed at Russia by United States National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell came shortly after the visit to the Russian capital by the somewhat notorious Tom Lantos, a representative to Congress from California who has won himself a reputation as one of the leading American hawks when it comes to Moscow. And that's the paradox: Tom Lantos, from whom only scandals could have been expected, this time turned out to be a dove rather than a hawk. This old warrior, who fought for the exclusion of Russia from the G8 and insisted that Mikhail Khodorkovsky be referred to as a political prisoner, not only preferred to refrain from getting into polemics with Vladimir Putin – he actually assured the Russian president that his speech in Munich would not interfere with a successful partnership between Russia and the United States.
So what happened to Tom Lantos' "creative legacy"? Nothing, actually. Less than a week later, the words of the previous incarnation of Mr. Lantos could be heard coming from the mouth of a retired US Navy admiral, Michael McConnell, who warned the Senate that Russia was turning its back on democracy, with all of the implicit consequences for its relations with the West. But what real news did Michael McConnell have for his audience? Wouldn't you think that such a well-informed individual wouldn't come running to the Senate and report what's going on in Russia as if it were some big discovery that the legislators couldn't have already have picked up from Tom Lantos?
In Michael McConnell's concern for the fate of Russian democracy, there is a heavy dollop of cunning. Here, democracy is the last thing to worry about. The most important issue is that the fear of Russia as a potential military threat to the US and its European allies, a fear that has lain dormant since Soviet times, is steadily being resurrected in the minds of the American general staff. The grounds for that fear are not only hints coming from Russian officials concerning an "adequate response" and some kind of miracle weapon that will render the Americans helpless. When Moscow threatens to unilaterally withdraw from the Gorbachev-era Soviet-American Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty in response to the expansion of the US missile defense system in Europe, that is taken as a very real threat. It doesn't get more real than that. After all, according to the design of the Russian initiators of the denunciation of the agreement to liquidate intermediate-range missiles, the Russian missiles aimed at Eastern Europe should force Poland and the Czech Republic to rethink the price of their unconditional support of the United States. That is the future that the Russian generals see in their dreams and that is forcing the American generals to join the chorus of the critics of Russian democracy.
Discussions of the worsening of Russian-American relations have become commonplace. In order to salvage this relationship, it will be important to understand exactly who is rocking the boat – who is the driving force behind this downward trend. It is clear that it is not the two ecstatically friendly presidents, and it isn't even the two parliaments (the Duma and the Congress). It's the "hunters" – and they come from both sides. If that is understood, then everything will remain in its proper place. And there won't be any question of why former vice-admiral McConnell has become the reincarnation of Congressman Lantos.
Sergey Strokan
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 01, 2007
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