Europe-Russian Relations Heat Up

Europe-Russian Relations Heat Up

Ex: http://www.corrupt.org/

Submitted by Alex Birch on Sat, 11/15/2008 - 22:05.

At Corrupt we've consistently pointed out the passive-aggressive game going on between the West and Russia. America failed to neutralize the Russian threat after WWII, which we've now paid back in the form of geopolitical sanctions and realpolitikal rhetoric ever since:

With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia’s Government. According to Mr Levitte, the Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. “I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,” Mr Putin declared.

Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” — he asked. “Why not?” Mr Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?” Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah — you have scored a point there.”

The Kosovo independence triggered Russia to recognize it was standing alone against Western pressure. When the indirect actions taken by America suddenly became direct, following the suggestion to help Georgia join NATO, Russia decided to respond with the same tactics. What makes Europe vulnerable today is its disunity over how to manage the situation. America is a worn out empire, responding pragmatically in the neo-conservative tradition the Bush-Cheney Administration established as a foreign policy ethos, but so is not Europe. Living out its post-socialist dream of embracing globalization and still maintaining world political status, it's waiting out further action from America, although some leaders are already seeing the situation clearly for what it is:

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stated yesterday that the deployment of the US antimissile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic is a “provocation” against Russia.

Italy’s PM reminded that the Russian president Dmitrij Medvedev’s response to that plan was to announce the deployment of missiles in – as Berlusconi put it – “the Russian enclave in the Balkans, Kaliningrad.”

According to the Italian PM, “putting the two arsenals against each other would be a mistake, which could lead to the destruction of the world.”

As another example of provocation against Russia, Silvio Berlusconi mentioned also acknowledging Kosovo’s independence, as well as “speeding up the process of entering NATO by Ukraine and Georgia.”

Berlusconi called for a renewed agreement between NATO and Russia and for ending the arms race.

Berlusconi, although being right about the provocation from the West, is still off course when he fails to realize that this conflict will not be resolved through conventional international agreements. Russia is not going to back down, because it knows that would mean it'd have to downplay its current position, which is not an option if you want remain a strong and powerful nation. Russia knows it's sitting on an ace of spades--energy:

A supergrid of power supplies to protect Europe’s energy from the threat of a Russian stranglehold will be announced today.

The building blocks of the proposed supergrid would be new cables linking North Sea wind farms, and a network patching together the disparate electricity grids of the Baltic region and the countries bordering the Mediterranean, according to a blueprint drawn up by the European Commission and seen by The Times.

EU states will also be asked to pay for at least two ambitious gas pipelines to bring in supplies from Central Asia and Africa. The plans also call for a Community Gas Ring, or a network allowing EU countries to share supplies if Russia turns off the taps.

Europe is acting correctly: Historically it's been a mistake to trust its Russian neighbour, and the situation hasn't change today. It's clear now more than ever that the (aspiring or already confirmed) super powers of the world struggle for prestige and empire-building. We lost the ideological dimension when finance replaced fidelity to ideas instead of lifestyles, which means any empire losing this game will become labour for industrial expansion. If the West manages to defend itself, we have time over to change status-quo and return to sensible community building--if we lose, there's Change coming ahead that would silence even the most dogmatic supporter of Obama.