For Vladimir Putin, the Failure Just Keeps on Coming

Filed under: Russia

It appears that Vladimir Putin's KGB government has finally awoken the sleeping American giant, just as did the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor half a century ago.

No sooner did George Bush aggressively declare his intention to bring Ukraine and Georgia within the protective embrace of NATO than the U.S. House of Representatives, controlled by his rival party, made an even more direct attack on the Putin regime. The Associated Press reports:

The U.S. House of Representatives has endorsed a resolution suggesting that the Russian government might have had a hand in the 2006 radiation poisoning death of former Federal Security Service officer Alexander Litvinenko in London. The resolution, endorsed Tuesday, asks U.S. President George W. Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to press Russian officials to cooperate with British investigators probing the death Litvinenko, who fled to Britain in 2000 and took British citizenship. He died in November 2006 from radioactive polonium-210 he had ingested. The resolution is merely an expression of the sense of the U.S. Congress. But it is likely to annoy Russia as Bush prepares to meet with President Vladimir Putin on Sunday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. U.S.-Russian tensions are high as the U.S. pushes a missile-defense plan for Europe that Russia has opposed. Democratic congressman Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Tuesday that Litvinenko's death raises "disturbing questions about how elements of the Russian government appear to deal with their enemies." The resolution also calls on Bush and Rice to urge Russian cooperation "to ensure the security of the production, storage, distribution and export of polonium-210 as a material that may become dangerous to large numbers of people if utilized by terrorists."

In other words, the House -- by vote -- has accused the Russian government of state-sponsored murder. And let's not forget the motive for that murder -- namely to silence Litvinenko's persistent attacks blaming the Kremlin for the Moscow apartment bombings that were used by Putin to justify the invasion of Chechnya just after he became prime minister.

In Bucharest, Romania, there was even worse news for Putin. Not only did NATO summit there announce it would admit yet two more countries from Russia's orbit, Albania and Croatia, but it issued a stinging rebuke to Putin on missile defense. NATO strongly backed the Bush plan to install defensive missile systems in former Soviet slaves states like Czech Republic and Poland, and issued a formal statement which "calls on Russia to drop its objections to the system and to accept U.S. and NATO offers to cooperate on building it." Putin has vehemently opposed the plan. In what appeared to be a calculated PR offensive, NATO held back on granting MAP status to Ukraine and Georgia in order to focus on ramming the missile shield down Russia's throat first. But it left little doubt on their status. Bloomberg reported that "Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer sought to soften the blow on Ukraine and Georgia by saying the alliance is committed to bringing them in, even if the timing is uncertain. 'This can never be a question of whether,' De Hoop Scheffer said at a joint briefing with Bush yesterday." This is a brilliant stroke by NATO, and actually gives the two countries more than they expected from the conference. Now, the wind has been taken out of Russia's sails on missile defense by defusing the Ukraine/Georgia issue, which actually means nothing because the countries were not up for actual membership anyway. They can continue making preparations to qualify in close consultation with NATO and then, when missile defense has been finalized, be made members and receive their own defensive bases. It's clear that Ukraine in particular needs a bit of time to gird its loins for the inevitable Russia-instigated backlash on the domestic front that will be provoked by taking the last steps to join.

Vladimir Putin has completely poisoned Russia's relationship with the world's only superpower and all its allies, from Japan to Great Britain. He's isolated Russia just as the leaders of the USSR did, and is pursuing the same domestic crackdown they embraced. In other words, he's destroying the country exactly the way it's been done before.

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Comments

Artfldgr says:

once again i will suggest reading George Kennan, everyone is so sure they know things that one should see their expression and converstation after they actually read what he said.

http://www.geocities.com/athens/forum/2496/future/kennan.html

the long letter is here
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/documents/episode-1/kennan.htm

pay particular attention to his description of WHY things are the way they are and WHY that forces everyone else into a certai role.

USSR still lives in antagonistic "capitalist encirclement" with which in the long run there can be no permanent peaceful coexistence.

that line was written in 1946, and is followed by the reasons why they see things this way. kennan didnt say "trust me", he was still in an meritocracy, so he had to justify his position with argument.

he even makes the clear distinction between russian people and their leaders

First, it does not represent natural outlook of Russian people. Latter are, by and large, friendly to outside world, eager for experience of it, eager to measure against it talents they are conscious of possessing, eager above all to live in peace and enjoy fruits of their own labor. Party line only represents thesis which official propaganda machine puts forward with great skill and persistence to a public often remarkably resistant in the stronghold of its innermost thoughts. But party line is binding for outlook and conduct of people who make up apparatus of power--party, secret police and Government--and it is exclusively with these that we have to deal.

has anything really changed?

At bottom of Kremlin's neurotic view of world affairs is traditional and instinctive Russian sense of insecurity. Originally, this was insecurity of a peaceful agricultural people trying to live on vast exposed plain in neighborhood of fierce nomadic peoples. To this was added, as Russia came into contact with economically advanced West, fear of more competent, more powerful, more highly organized societies in that area. But this latter type of insecurity was one which afflicted rather Russian rulers than Russian people; for Russian rulers have invariably sensed that their rule was relatively archaic in form fragile and artificial in its psychological foundation, unable to stand comparison or contact with political systems of Western countries. For this reason they have always feared foreign penetration, feared direct contact between Western world and their own, feared what would happen if Russians learned truth about world without or if foreigners learned truth about world within. And they have learned to seek security only in patient but deadly struggle for total destruction of rival power, never in compacts and compromises with it.

Only in this land which had never known a friendly neighbor or indeed any tolerant equilibrium of separate powers, either internal or international, could a doctrine thrive which viewed economic conflicts of society as insoluble by peaceful means.

Soviet leaders are driven [by?] necessities of their own past and present position to put forward which [apparent omission] outside world as evil, hostile and menacing, but as bearing within itself germs of creeping disease and destined to be wracked with growing internal convulsions until it is given final Coup de grace by rising power of socialism and yields to new and better world. This thesis provides justification for that increase of military and police power of Russian state, for that isolation of Russian population from outside world, and for that fluid and constant pressure to extend limits of Russian police power which are together the natural and instinctive urges of Russian rulers. Basically this is only the steady advance of uneasy Russian nationalism, a centuries old movement in which conceptions of offense and defense are inextricably confused. But in new guise of international Marxism, with its honeyed promises to a desperate and war torn outside world, it is more dangerous and insidious than ever before.

again... all that is 1946...

he goes further
We have now seen nature and background of Soviet program. What may we expect by way of its practical implementation?

a few highlights.

Soviet policy, as Department implies in its query under reference, is conducted on two planes:

(1) official plane represented by actions undertaken officially in name of Soviet Government; and

(2) subterranean plane of actions undertaken by agencies for which Soviet Government does not admit responsibility.

On official plane we must look for following:

(a) Internal policy devoted to increasing in every way strength and prestige of Soviet state: intensive military-industrialization; maximum development of armed forces; great displays to impress outsiders; continued secretiveness about internal matters, designed to conceal weaknesses and to keep opponents in dark.

i kind of like this one

However, other points may at any time come into question, if and as concealed Soviet political power is extended to new areas. Thus a "friendly Persian Government might be asked to grant Russia a port on Persian Gulf. Should Spain fall under Communist control, question of Soviet base at Gibraltar Strait might be activated. But such claims will appear on official level only when unofficial preparation is complete.

who is now socialist thanks to a bomb, and in control of gibralter... nice call from 1946, no?

Russians will strive energetically to develop Soviet representation in, and official ties with, countries in which they sense Strong possibilities of opposition to Western centers of power.

Inner central core of Communist Parties in other countries. While many of persons who compose this category may also appear and act in unrelated public capacities, they are in reality working closely together as an underground operating directorate of world communism, a concealed Comintern tightly coordinated and directed by Moscow. It is important to remember that this inner core is actually working on underground lines, despite legality of parties with which it is associated.

Whereas formerly foreign Communist Parties represented a curious (and from Moscow's standpoint often inconvenient) mixture of conspiracy and legitimate activity, now the conspiratorial element has been neatly concentrated in inner circle and ordered underground, while rank and file--no longer even taken into confidence about realities of movement--are thrust forward as bona fide internal partisans of certain political tendencies within their respective countries, genuinely innocent of conspiratorial connection with foreign states. Only in certain countries where communists are numerically strong do they now regularly appear and act as a body. As a rule they are used to penetrate, and to influence or dominate, as case may be, other organizations less likely to be suspected of being tools of Soviet Government, with a view to accomplishing their purposes through [apparent omission] organizations, rather than by direct action as a separate political party.

and since you can all read the rest, here is the kicker line... let me know if it sounds like a description of the current american election battle

3. A wide variety of national associations or bodies which can be dominated or influenced by such penetration. These include: labor unions, youth leagues, women's organizations, racial societies, religious societies, social organizations, cultural groups, liberal magazines, publishing houses, etc.

jerry verne says:

yeah kim, a toothless congressional resolution is analagous to a formal declaration of war (which is what happened when the japanese 'woke the sleeping giant')

if you really think anything meaningfull will come out of this resolution (as opposed to empty blabber, which washington excels at) than i pity you, because it means you're far dumber and more pathetic than i possibly could have imagined

Assistant Village Idiot says:

Russia has historically only been able to wield negative power - the power to destroy. This remains essentially the case today, as resource-rich Russia with a small population is surrounded by China, India, and Europe, with larger populations and desiring resources. And just a bit farther out, Japan and SE Asia.

jerry verne says:

oh man, i forgot to add that nato refused to offer georgia or ukraine membership...sorry kim!
like one of your readers said a few days ago, george w. bush screws up everything he touches and...voila, once bush embraced nato membership for ukraine and georgia what happend? they didn't get in! is anyone (even you, kim) surprised by this?
man oh man kim, the first genuine geopolitical victory for russia in a real long time (missile defense has been a fait accompli for months) and your headline is "for vladimir putin, the failure just keeps on coming"
do you actually make a deliberate effort to be this stupid?
(and i'll believe the europeans promises of "eventual membership" for those two countries about as soon as i'll believe wmd evidence coming out of the bush administration which is to say, never)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7328276.stm

La Russophobe says:

JERRY:

Let me congratulate you for leaving (like rodent dropping) one of the stupidest comments we've ever received on this blog. There's been thousands. Trust me, it's saying something.

Fait accompli? Thanks for the news flash! There I was thinking that not a single missile had been installed anywhere in Europe and Russia was threatening to target any country that accepted them, and Putin was lobbying regularly to block it, and lo and behold I find out it's already been done! You might want to write to Mr. Putin and tell him he's just wasting his time, better sit down and shut up.

Got any more scoops there, Mr. Inside Story? You really should have your own blog to dispense all this wisdom, shouldn't you?

I guess you think Putin would prefer to be condemned by vote in the House than not, huh? So that vote is a victory too? Toothless? It's coming on the heels of John McCain's call for ejecting Russia from the G-8. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, dummy.

If you'd bothered to actually read this post before commenting on it, the SECRETARY GENERAL OF NATO said that it is only a matter of time before Georgia and Ukraine are admitted. They could not have been admitted now, only given formal authorization to apply. They are perfectly free to make the necessary preparations anyway, and will do so.

If you think that it's just as easy for NATO to win the PR battle with Russia over the missiles with or without offering membership to Ukraine and Georgia, then you are a blathering moron and I'd prefer if you didn't soil this blog with your gibberish. You're embarrassing us as well as yourself with your ignorance.

jerry verne says:

"I guess you think Putin would prefer to be condemned by vote in the House than not, huh? So that vote is a victory too? Toothless? It's coming on the heels of John McCain's call for ejecting Russia from the G-8."

Kim,

Did you grow up near power lines? Please point me to where I said the House vote was a "victory" for Putin. Of course you won't be able to, since I said no such thing but please, do try (your strawmen are getting weaker and weaker as time goes by, do you ever try anymore?) Of course it's not a "victory," but it's only a "defeat" in your shrill and hysterical dreamworld. That toothless joke of a resolution is about as much of a "defeat" for Vladimir Putin as is the continued operation of this website which is to say, not at all.

And oh my God how, with oil holding steady at over $100 a barell, will Russia possibly survive without G8 membership?????? How does China survive? What about India, or Brazil???? How, oh how, do they do it? I sure hope the Russians figure out how the vast magority of the world's population manages to scrape by without G8 membership before it's too late!

"If you think that it's just as easy for NATO to win the PR battle with Russia over the missiles with or without offering membership to Ukraine and Georgia, then you are a blathering moron and I'd prefer if you didn't soil this blog with your gibberish. You're embarrassing us as well as yourself with your ignorance."

Um Kim, the missile issue involves 3 countries that are all already members of NATO (and 2 that are in the EU). OF COURSE it's easier for NATO to win this PR battle. This is controversial?
(and if it wasn't easier to win this PR battle, why did NATO refuse to offer a membership action plan to your beloved Georgia and Ukraine?)

Finally, you provide no reason to believe the assurances of NATO's secretary general (I thought he was a wimpy socialist European surrender-monkey, right?) beyond indetifying him. Would you have us believe that NATO always and perfectly abides by its commitments? Tell that to the Afghans who are daily getting blown up, beheaded, and torn to pieces by the Taliban because NATO can't make its collective mind up how many troops to station there!

You are a very special person Kim
(and by "special" I mean it the way they do in "special" education")

elmer says:

art, that's some pretty good stuff, there.

for jules verne, there have been abundant reports that NATO will once again take up the issue of Membership Action Plans for Ukraine and Georgia in December 2008.

Here's yet another one:

http://ukraine-observer.com/index.php?c=1533

President says NATO summit result a "victory" for Ukraine
KYIV, April 4: "This is an exceptional victory," Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said at a news conference in Bucharest whilst commenting on NATO's decision to postpone the discussion on Ukraine's accession to the NATO Membership Action Plan until December 2008.

"This is a historic decision," Yushchenko said. It "even exceeded expectations" of the Ukrainian delegation. It was "a political compromise," he noted, adding that the decision on Ukraine at the summit "was difficult and did not come easily".

"All the 26 states reacted positively to Ukraine's application to join the MAP. A number of states said that they were ready to admit Ukraine into NATO by bypassing the MAP stage," Yushchenko said.

The assessment of Ukraine's progress by the foreign ministers of the NATO member states in December 2008 will be "actually a political formality", Yushchenko stressed. NATO held its summit in the Romanian capital. It addressed the issue of accepting new member states.

elmer says:

Yushchenko is not Saddam, and Ukraine is not Iraq.

Now, roosha - that's a different matter. I see no difference between the way muslims and rooshans treat women as second-class citizens. roosha seems to me like Nigeria with missiles.

ей, кацапе засраний - нехай тебе качка копне.

свербить тобі в дупі твої дурні що Україна є вільна і незалежна.

хочеш розмовляти чемно - будемо розмовляти чемно.

інакше - замкнися.

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For Vladimir Putin, the Failure Just Keeps on Coming

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