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Pots and Kettles Redux
// The price of the question
The UN Security Council joint statement on the Iranian nuclear problem was couched in perfectly correct and even conciliatory tones. They have admonished Tehran once again, explained that making nuclear arms is a bad thing to do, hinted that Israel, which has taken the anti-Semitic statements of the Iranian leadership completely seriously, may get the wrong idea about the whole matter, and then a nightmare will be unleashed, the likes of which not even the Middle East has seen before. And then they gave then a short deadline – meet all International Atomic Energy Agency requirements, allow its inspectors in and renounce independent uranium enrichment in a month.
They forgot to say one thing. That is what will happen if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the popularly elected nutcase, reacts to the Security Council, IAEA and all interested parties the way he usually does.
And so it turns out that nothing will happen. More exactly, if something happens, it won't come from the UN and it won't go to Iran. It will go to Russia.
Russia has been chosen to take the Iranian nuclear heat. The Americans chose it and let Russia know that, if it didn't change its position on the Iranian problem toward the stricter, at the upcoming G8 summit they will stick their noses in its transgressions against democracy and human rights and everything else there is to stick one's nose into. That is not to say that we have to pressure Iran along with the Americans, but to pressure them even more than the Americans ad renounce our own role in the conflict, and then they will act at the summit as if political correctness reigns in the Caucasus, nongovernmental organizations receive funds from anyone they want to and the prisons are empty. But if we don't pressure Tehran, and even sell it missiles that will be able to deflect attacks on their nuclear facilities, then U.S. President George W. Bush will personally mention all of Russia's sore points at the summit.
One has to wonder how Russia got to be chairman of the G8 summit in any case. To be chairman in the company of those who continually criticize Russian authorities from authoritarianism, rolling back democracy, violating human rights and all the sins that are unforgivable in that company is practically mission impossible. But those who are pointing their fingers at Russia have less than perfect records as well. And Russian democracy is not being evaluated on its own merits, but in relation to Russia's behavior in situations that have nothing to do with domestic Russian life. We do something wrong with Hamas, with Iran, and the immediate response is that we have ad democracy. As though it would be better if our Middle Eastern policy followed the American line more closely.
At one time, the standard and unchanging response to any “incorrect” American action was “They lynch black people there.” Now as soon as the Russians displease the Americans, the immediate response is Matrosskaya Tishina Prison. And if we do everything our American friends want, we'll be fully democratic.
Alexander Kabakov
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 31, 2006
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