the opinionist

Last week (at the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy) Russian President Vladimir Putin rolled up his sleeves and gave his apparently honest opinion of the United States’ hegemonic ambitions and flawed foreign policy actions which, Putin suggests, have undermined world stability and encouraged nuclear proliferation.

U.S. Secretary of Defense - Robert Gates - tried to clear the air and remove any bitterness by responding:

Speaking of issues going back many years, as an old Cold Warrior, one of yesterday’s speeches almost filled me with nostalgia for a less complex time. Almost.

Many of you have backgrounds in diplomacy or politics. I have, like your second speaker yesterday, a starkly different background - a career in the spy business. And, I guess, old spies have a habit of blunt speaking.

However, I have been to re-education camp, spending four and half years as a university president and dealing with faculty. And, as more than a few university presidents have learned in recent years, when it comes to faculty it is either “be nice“ or “be gone.“

The real world we inhabit is a different and much more complex world than that of 20 or 30 years ago. We all face many common problems and challenges that must be addressed in partnership with other countries, including Russia.

For this reason, I have this week accepted the invitation of both President Putin and Minister of Defense Ivanov to visit Russia. One Cold War was quite enough.

Alas, it appears these gentle words from Defense Secretary Gates have either fallen on deaf ears at the Kremlin or are perceived as slightly contradicting statements made by Gates yesterday have confused the diplomatic purpose of a trip to Moscow and a buddy pow-wow?

MosNews reports, “Secretary Gates said Wednesday the United States needs forces to combat big armies and special units to counter terrorism as he is unaware what may develop in such countries as Russia, North Korea, Iran and China.”

MosNews continues, “Mikhail Kamynin said Russia “is perplexed” by the recent statements by Gates and other high-ranking U.S. officials and intelligence officers. He said such statements make “a certain system of negative assessments” of Russia.”

According to the Russian News and Information Agency (RIA Novosti), Russian President Vladimir Putin went one further and, “accused the United States of ‘playing the anti-Russian card’ to solve its domestic problems and secure more substantial defense spending.
“I have an impression that some partners are promoting themselves and have started using the non-existent Russian threat to get more money from the U.S. Congress for military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the expensive missile defense project,” Putin said during his visit to Jordan, adding that it was not Russia’s problem.”

It seems, far from playing nice, both sides - the U.S. and Russia - are banging heads a few times too many. The stakes are high and sound minds are needed. Are there any?

Today’s silly rumor (see prior post) of Russian troop deployments in Iran - whilst just rumor - don’t seem quite so far fetched when diplomatic tussles between Russia and the U.S. are reported almost daily.

R

Posted on February 14th, 2007 under Iraq, Munich, Putin, Russia, U.S., gates •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback