For those wondering whether U.S.-Russian relations really have been “reset”, this article from Russia’s Gazeta newspaper should provide food for thought.
We must permit our minds to let go of our memories, tormented as we are by past grievances, and understand that only with the United States can the European Union and Russia save northern civilization.
These are the words of none other than Dmitriy Rogozin, Russia’s permanent ambassador to NATO, who days ago penned this eye-wiping op-ed.
Not known for his warm words toward NATO in general or the United States in particular, Ambassador Rogozin strikes a pragmatic and nearly-conciliatory tone when he writes that Russia and NATO, and particularly the members of the former Warsaw Pact, have to get over historic grievances to stave of the “onslaught” of the “new southern cultures.”
Opining that the new expanded NATO is much weaker than the Cold War version and that the Alliance has “lost its identity,” Ambassador Dmitriy Rogozin writes of Russian relations with its former allies in Eastern Europe:
In my opinion, the Russophobic elites of the Baltic and Eastern European states operate on the principle, “to spite my grandma, I’ll get frostbite.” Warm relations with a huge country, with its bottomless market and fantastic economic and energy potential – that’s manna from heaven for our neighbors. If I was a Lithuanian or Latvian nationalist politician, I would embrace the Russian community and use its connections with Russia to ensure the prosperity of my proud little state. … without adding anything serious or substantial to NATO’s combined military capability, our former “brothers” brought into the Alliance their own squabbles, forcing their “senior partners” to sort them out when the need arose. I’m now firmly convinced that NATO as it existed from the 50s to the 80s of the last century was far more able to benefit the peoples of the countries that formed the Alliance.”
Later, explaining why ancient enmities must be set aside, Rogozin writes:
Savvy Western politicians have come to realize that if there is a worldwide threat to U.S. and European security, it comes from the south, not the east. And in this sense, Russia is the most important partner and ally of European nations. … Today’s brutal and fragile world really does contain influential powers that put our right to exist under question. To them we – Russians, Americans, Europeans – are all of the same face.
By Dmitriy Rogozin
The author is Russia’s permanent ambassador to NATO
Translated By Yekaterina Blinova
December 15, 2009
Russia – Gazeta – Original Article (Russian)
The main problem with our ties to NATO is that the organization now consists of almost 30 countries, each with a different historic memory of Russia. That is why NATO’s degree of cooperation with Russia is “hospital average” [see below]. It’s composed of warm, almost friendly ties between our country and the states of “old” Europe; icy stares from our former “brothers” in the Warsaw Pact; and constant fluctuations of “electricity” in U.S.-Russia relations – from “overload” to “reset.”
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