Bear baits eagle/Putin shoots tiger
So President Medvedev gave a speech a couple of days back in which he articulated in some detail the governing axioms of Russian foreign policy. We can assume, of course, that this is the word direct from Putin himself; otherwise Medvedev wouldn’t have said it. The five principles are:
#1: Russia recognizes the primacy of international law
#2: The world should be multipolar. No one nation should dominate the international system.
#3: Russia doesn’t seek confrontation with any other country.
#4: Russia will protect the interests of its citizens abroad.
#5: “As is the case of other countries, there are regions in which Russia has privileged interests. These regions are home to countries with which we share special historical relations and are bound together as friends and good neighbours.”
No prizes for guessing that #2 and #5 are the really important ones here. The Kremlin is signalling to Washington that what’s happened in Georgia is the first part of a more general settlement within (and possibly beyond) the former Soviet Union. The Russian gamble here is that the U.S. is too bogged down in its MidEast quagmire to do much about that, at least in the initial phases. At the same time, I would doubt that we’d see any more overt moves by Russia (beyond that already underway in Georgia) until after the U.S. presidential election.
In other news, Russian media continues to hail Putin as the incarnation of manhood in the New Russia. And what better way to prove it than by having him shoot a tiger on national TV?
I guess that settles that.
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Well, shooting a tiger with a tranquilizer and setting it up to be tracked seems a hell of a lot better than showing up to a farm where “Jed” releases a bird right off the barrel of your gun but choosing to shoot an old man in the face instead.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Yeah, it has always been a pleasure of being a neighbour (or part of) to such a friendly teddy bear
September 5th, 2008 at 11:28 am
: ) indeed. . . .!
September 6th, 2008 at 12:00 am
1) Seriously! How can one speak of the Georgian invasion; much less Chechnya from the Russian counterpart to Cheney; Medvedeyev’s GAZPROM in Exxon, Halliburton, & Union Carbide wrapped in one; and not laugh. Apparently, the Georgian invasions spearheaded by Gen. Shamanov “Hero” of Chechnya, more likely War Criminal, has created schisms in the Bashkir region, Nagorno-Karabakh,
ignited Ingush secessionist claims, even revived the Wahhabi suicide bombers in Chechnya itself. So that’s probably the third quagmire in as many generations, god job there. Odd how Baldy and Stary Atagi, two outright massacres in Chechnya, never reached the level of attention of Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, much less Haditha
2, 3, & 4 For the same reasons, not believable. One is amused with the reference to the Whittington accident, in comparison to a country where leading opposition
leaders, (Yandarbichev, in exile in Doha) journalists, (Poliskayava, Klebnikov)even fomer military rivals (Gen. Rokhlin)are so directly dispatched; one agrieved mother of a victim of the Kursk, was chloroformed when she spoke out.I still don’t see him as an Olenkov type although this de facto czar, all he’s missing is the crown; would probably be considered a role model.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:22 am
@Narciso: agreed; (1) we can discount out of hand; I just assumed that, but realize now I never stated it. No nation that’s powerful enough considers themselves bound by international law, though they usually talk a good game about respecting it. Other thoughts:
–I think the reason why the Russian horrorshow in Chechnya doesn’t/didn’t get much press here is just that generally in the U.S. international news matters a lot less. It’s like how the average American emerges from high school having been taught almost exclusively American history.
–on the killings of journalists: good point. the climate inside Russia got very bad very fast.
–what newsfeed are you following re what’s going on vis-a-vis the latest suicide bombings in Chechnya? (and also some of the ramifications of Shamanov’s actions?)
Sounds like something I should add to my rss.
–I don’t see Putin as an Olenkov either. Olenkov is order-of-magnitude scarier. Think Alexander the Great meets Stalin.