Madeleine Albright Instructs Russians to ‘Know their Place’: Kommersant, Russia

Was she speaking on cue or speaking out of turn? That must have been the question on the minds of Russian officials when they heard the comments of former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, addressing members of the European Parliament last month.

Albright, who has been appointed a consultant by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, seems to have ticked off the author of this unsigned article from Russian business newspaper Kommersant.

The author not only highlights her undiplomatic remarks, but questions whether a Western victory in Afghanistan would be in the Russian interest and warns of dire consequences if Moscow is mistreated.

The Kommersant article says in part:

In her speech to the European Parliament, Madeleine Albright, speaking of NATO’s New Strategic Concept, touched on the subject of relations with Russia. The former U.S. Secretary of State called them “functional” and said NATO was “in the process of taking inventory.” At the same time, Albright expressed dissatisfaction with the position of Russia, which in her view, tends to forget its place. “Russia is just one of the partners, and it should not be the tail that wags the dog,” Albright said.

[Translator's Note: In Russian, Albrights comments translated as, "eggs don't teach the hen," which is an age-old Russian saying].

It’s beyond question that NATO and Russia have common ground. … But the significance of these points of conversion shouldn’t be overestimated. … The United States and NATO are far more interested in stabilizing Afghanistan than is Russia, which is a country on the periphery of Moscow’s political interests. The question of whether total victory for the Western alliance in Afghanistan is in Russia’s interest remains a controversial question.

Kommersant finishes with this somewhat surprising paragraph, referring to the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe, and implying that the imposition of an unfair treaty on Russia could have a monstrous outcome, in the way that the Treaty of Versailles, imposed on Germany after World War I, led to the emergence of Hitler’s Nazi regime:

The Western countries must answer this for themselves: what do they see as the role of the CFE in its relations with Russia – like the Treaty of Versailles or, symbolically speaking, the Locarno Treaties? And if it is to be Versailles, then how does NATO expect to maintain for itself its winning bargaining position?

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