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Also see below: Kremlin Hits Out at Cheney Speech Friday 05 May 2006 The Kremlin has described US Vice President Dick Cheney’s tough condemnation of Russia on Thursday as “completely incomprehensible”. Mr Cheney made his comments in a speech in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. He accused the Russian government was using oil and gas as tools of intimidation or blackmail. His comments come just over two months before the G8 summit of major industrial countries and Russia which is being held in St Petersburg. US Criticism Dick Cheney’s blunt attack on what the Bush administration sees as the Kremlin’s growing authoritarianism comes at a delicate moment in US-Russia relations. Speaking in Vilnius on Thursday, Mr Cheney pointedly referred to the Baltic States as representing “the very front lines of freedom in the modern world”. His comments will further sour the atmosphere in the run-up to the G8 summit, to be hosted by President Putin in mid-July. And they are inevitably going to complicate US efforts to win Russian support for tough United Nations action against Iran. Indeed several senior US statesmen I have spoken to in the past few days see the Iran dossier as representing a litmus test for relations between Washington and Moscow. On that reading relations might only get worse. Politics of Energy But what is most interesting about Mr Cheney’s comments is the way they highlight the issue of energy. High oil prices, China and India’s growing demand for fuel, and Russia’s new influence, combine to make many international problems that much harder to grapple with. The US of course has its own axe to grind as well. Mr Cheney was on Friday in Kazakhstan promoting a new gas pipeline route that will by-pass Russia. The scramble for energy resources, so-called “pipeline diplomacy”, has been likened to “the Great Game” during the 19th Century – the struggle for influence in Central Asia. And today, just as then, there are bound to be both winners and losers. Cheney Rebuke Angers Russian Press Saturday 06 May 2006 Russian newspapers are taken aback by the criticisms of the Kremlin voiced by US Vice-President Dick Cheney at an eastern European summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Several take the view that the speech marks an attempt by the US to set up an anti – Russian regional grouping in place of the Moscow-led Commonwealth of Independent States. One thinks the speech marks the resumption of the post – 1945 Cold War, only with a new “front line”. Maksim Chizhikov in Komsomolskaya Pravda “A cold, sharp wind has blown towards Moscow from the West… The second-in-command in the US administration has criticised us full-blast: both for the lack, in his view, of democracy, and for the ‘energy blackmail’ of our neighbours. He even hinted that Russia once again ran the risk of becoming a US enemy… Not since President Reagan, who described the USSR as an ‘evil empire’, has Washington assailed Moscow so bluntly.” Vladimir Skripov et al In Vremya Novostey “It is becoming more and more obvious that the struggle between the US and Russia for influence in the former Soviet republics is becoming more acute… Essentially, the US leadership is bidding for the creation on the territory of the former USSR of another regional alliance, called upon not just to become an alternative to the CIS but its grave-digger.” Vasiliy Kashin in Vedomosti “The aim of Cheney’s statement was to put pressure on Russia at the time when the discussion of the Iranian nuclear problem and preparations for the G8 summit are at their height… relations between the US and Russia are indeed slumping, which is manifest both in contradictions regarding former Soviet republics and Middle East politics.” Olga Tropkina et al In Trud “A summit of the countries of the Baltic – Black Sea region opened in Vilnius… Judging by its leaders’ statements, the list of political blocs may soon feature a new abbreviation: the CDR – the Commonwealth of the Disgruntled with Russia.” Nadezhda Sorokina In Rossiyskaya Gazeta “A group of nine states, this time small ones, is trying to take shape. It is made up of those among Russia’s neighbours who are trying to assert themselves not by advocating normal relations with our country but by trying to… use the contradictions between Moscow and some of its Western partners… the obvious political component of the ‘Common Vision for Common Neighbourhood’… is more and more turning into an attempt to set up a ‘neighbourhood without Russia’.” Mikhail Zygar in Kommersant “Dick Cheney’s speech in Vilnius… was the sharpest attack on Russia an American leader has made since the end of the Cold War. The subject of the Cold War was the leitmotiv of the US vice president’s whole speech. This expression, first famously coined by Winston Churchill in Fulton exactly 60 years ago, was used by Dick Cheney three times … In effect, Dick Cheney’s words mean that the Cold War is resuming, but the ‘front line’ has now shifted.” “Mikhail Rostovskiy In Moskovksiy Komsomolets “On the one hand, Moscow was shown the advantages of ‘good behaviour’ on her part. Iran was not mentioned, but the word could easily be read between the lines. On the other hand, the Kremlin was issued with an unambiguous warning… He (Cheney) is not the kind of politician with whom agreement can easily be reached. Even if Moscow meets them halfway and surrenders Iran, it does not at all mean that it will rid itself of Cheney’s sermons. He is like a bulldog which, once he sinks his teeth into your back, will not let go.” |
Cheney Alienates Russia
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on May 7, 2006 4:06 PM in Politics
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