How should a new and reinvigorated Russia put the United States and the West in their proverbial place? For Russia’s Izvestia, columnist Seraphim Melentyev suggests the creation of international tribunals for Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, to bring an end to the doctrine ‘humanitarian intervention,’ not only to protect the world, but to prevent ‘exceptionalist Western elites’ who have gone ‘unpunished’ from interfering with the emergence of Russia as a ‘good empire.’
For Izvestia, reflecting a marked rise in Russian nationalism since Vladimir Putin’s decision to annex Crimea, Seraphim Melentyev starts out by telling a story about Russian sociologist Alexander Zinoviev, who once opined on how to ‘kill an elephant with a needle.’:
But back to Zinoviev. His thesis is that you can kill an elephant with a needle if you find the deadliest place to stick it. In our case – to disarm the West, deprive it of the initiative and bind its hands and feet.
Such a needle is hidden in the history of Western foreign policy for the past 15 years, and which, by the way, Vladimir Putin reminded us about in his March 18 speech. With no lack of irony, the president thanked Western heads of state and diplomats for at least sometimes remembering international law, even if they trampled on it in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
A reminder to the president: Russian diplomacy should use Zinoviev’s needle to jab the “Western elephant” so it doesn’t interfere with Russia as it fills its historic space and becomes a world power.
March 24th marked the 15th anniversary of the start of NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia. For three months, without any reflection about international law and the U.N. Charter, the United States and NATO destroyed a sovereign state, killed several thousand people including 800 children, and caused about $100 billion in damage to the country.
It would be symbolic if Russian diplomacy, in the form of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia’s ambassador to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin marked the anniversary by putting forward a resolution establishing a United Nations Criminal Tribunal for Kosovo and the former Yugoslavia. Peace and international law demand an investigation into this “humanitarian” crime and prosecute those responsible for it.
Also, October 7 is the 13th anniversary of the U.S. and NATO invasion of Afghanistan, so an International Tribunal for Afghanistan can also be initiated. The ongoing American operation “Enduring Freedom” deserves a detailed analysis, since one of its most striking consequences has been the planet-wide phenomenon of Afghan drug production. Heroin production in Afghanistan has risen 44 fold, while over the last decade, the number of global deaths amounted to almost a million people. Why is this not an international crime against humanity?
At the tribunal for Afghanistan, a question should be raised: Who is responsible for giving NATO command of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, which occurred in August 2003? That way, it becomes possible to end the substitution of NATO for the United Nations, which poses a threat to the security of all countries and peoples. The main goal – rather than to share a smoke with the Americans on their mega bases, the purpose of which is demonstrably not to create stability – would be to force the U.S. and NATO to finance alternative development programs in Afghanistan to drastically reduce drug production.
Of course, I feel sorry for Obama, but these investigations are not necessary if we are to break the psychological balance of power held by Western leaders. These investigations are needed primarily to protect the world from the geopolitical adventurism of exceptionalist Western elites who have gone unpunished, and to prevent them from interfering with Russia as it builds a great new country, developing itself and helping friends and neighbors do so as well.
The world needs a good empire, and Russia has every chance and basis for quickly becoming one.
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