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OPINION: IGNORE WESTERN HYPOCRISY, PUTIN WILL DO WHAT HE WANTS
CNN
March 7 2014
By Simon Tisdall, Special to CNN
Editor's note: Simon Tisdall is assistant editor and foreign affairs
columnist of the Guardian. He was previously foreign editor of the
Guardian and the Observer and served as White House corespondent
and U.S. editor in Washington D.C. The opinions expressed in this
commentary are solely his.
(CNN) -- All the self-righteous huffing and puffing in Washington over
Ukraine jars on European and especially Russian ears after the multiple
U.S.-led invasions and interventions in other people's countries
of recent years. It's difficult to say what is more astonishing:
the double standards exhibited by the White House, or the apparent
total lack of self-awareness of U.S. officials.
Secretary of State John Kerry risked utter ridicule when he declared
it unacceptable to invade another country on a "completely trumped-up
pretext," or just because you don't like its current leadership. Iraq
in 2003 springs instantly to mind. This is exactly what George W. Bush
and Tony Blair did when they "trumped up" the supposed threat posed
by the hated Saddam Hussein's fabled weapons of mass destruction.
Like Saddam, the Taliban leadership in place in Afghanistan in 2001
was deeply objectionable. But instead of just going after Osama bin
Laden and his al Qaeda training camps after the 9/11 attacks, Bush
(again abetted by Blair) opted for full-scale regime change. The
lamentable consequences of that decision are still being felt 13
years later, not least by Afghan civilians who have been dying in
ever greater numbers as the final Nato withdrawal approaches.
U.S. President Barack Obama, a former law professor who should know
better, has charged Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart, with
violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, in breach
of international law.
But it is Obama, following in Bush's footsteps, who has repeatedly
and cynically flouted international law by launching or backing myriad
armed attacks on foreign soil, in Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan
to name a few, without U.N. security council authorization. It is
Obama's administration which continues to undermine international law
by refusing to join or recognize the International Criminal Court,
the most important instrument of international justice to have been
developed since 1945.
And it is Obama's State Department, principally in the person of
Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, that fatally overplayed
its hand in the run-up to last month's second Ukraine revolution.
Nuland's infamous "f**k the EU" comment revealed the extent to which
Washington was recklessly maneuvering to undermine Ukraine's elected
pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, by backing the Kiev street
protesters' demands.
The EU had wanted to take things more gradually, for fear of provoking
the very Russian reaction to which the U.S. now so strongly objects.
When the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland, acting
for the EU, negotiated a compromise agreement on February 22 that
envisaged early elections, the crisis appeared to have been defused.
Russia did not like the deal, but seemed ready to go along.
But within 24 hours, the opposition had torn up the agreement. It
forced Yanukovych from power and sacked the government. To alarm in
Moscow, where nightmarish World War II memories linger, Ukrainian
neo-fascists were among those who seized control. They are now part
of the new government in Kiev.
The U.S. almost immediately gave its blessing to what the Kremlin
later described as a "coup d'etat" while the EU, knowing this was
what Washington wanted, just looked on. Little wonder the Russians
were furious at what they saw as a western double cross.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, reflected these worries
when he voiced "most serious concern" over Ukraine in phone calls
to the French, German and Polish foreign ministers. "The opposition
not only has failed to fulfil a single one of its obligations but is
already presenting new demands all the time, following the lead of
armed extremists and pogromists whose actions pose a direct threat
to Ukraine's sovereignty and constitutional order," Lavrov said. But
it was already too late.
Obama and Kerry seem to have calmed down a little since the crisis
first broke. The self-righteous hyperbole about international rights
is less evident, though it has not disappeared entirely. Obama has
heard the many voices in the U.S. and beyond terming this the worst
east-west crisis since the end of the Cold War -- and as the biggest
foreign test of his presidency.
So now he's doing what he does best: talking. In his latest phone
call to Putin, on Thursday this week, Obama put forward a plan
to resolve the stand-off diplomatically. It includes direct talks
between Moscow and Kiev, the return of Russian troops to their bases,
and the deployment of international observers to ensure the rights
of all ethnic groups, including Crimean Russians, are respected.
But don't hold your breath. Putin is in no hurry to back off or
back down.
He has his tail up after a fortnight in which he exposed the hypocrisy
and hollowness of much of western policy and politicians. His
behavior, especially in Crimea, has been dangerous, wrong-headed and
irresponsible in the extreme. In many ways, Putin is an unredeemed
Cold War throwback. He is definitely not the sort of chap one would
invite round for dinner, as a former British diplomat commented. The
crisis could still explode in his and everyone else's face. But it
was not unprovoked.
And the Russian leader has an eye for precedent. Similar battles over
so-called "frozen conflicts" and the rights of isolated ethnic groups
loom elsewhere on Russia's periphery, in Georgia, Moldova, Armenia,
Nagorno-Karabakh, and maybe Belarus and the Baltic states too. Putin
is putting down a marker, even as he plays Obama and Kerry for fools.
Whatever they think in Washington, and whatever the financial markets
say, it's working for him personally. Latest opinion polls in Russia
show Putin's popularity soaring. One of these days western leaders
will drop the pious cant, learn to stop under-estimating him, and
recognize Russia's leader-for-life as the canny, very dangerous,
utterly unscrupulous opponent he is.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/07/opinion/putin-western-hypocrosy/
CNN
March 7 2014
By Simon Tisdall, Special to CNN
Editor's note: Simon Tisdall is assistant editor and foreign affairs
columnist of the Guardian. He was previously foreign editor of the
Guardian and the Observer and served as White House corespondent
and U.S. editor in Washington D.C. The opinions expressed in this
commentary are solely his.
(CNN) -- All the self-righteous huffing and puffing in Washington over
Ukraine jars on European and especially Russian ears after the multiple
U.S.-led invasions and interventions in other people's countries
of recent years. It's difficult to say what is more astonishing:
the double standards exhibited by the White House, or the apparent
total lack of self-awareness of U.S. officials.
Secretary of State John Kerry risked utter ridicule when he declared
it unacceptable to invade another country on a "completely trumped-up
pretext," or just because you don't like its current leadership. Iraq
in 2003 springs instantly to mind. This is exactly what George W. Bush
and Tony Blair did when they "trumped up" the supposed threat posed
by the hated Saddam Hussein's fabled weapons of mass destruction.
Like Saddam, the Taliban leadership in place in Afghanistan in 2001
was deeply objectionable. But instead of just going after Osama bin
Laden and his al Qaeda training camps after the 9/11 attacks, Bush
(again abetted by Blair) opted for full-scale regime change. The
lamentable consequences of that decision are still being felt 13
years later, not least by Afghan civilians who have been dying in
ever greater numbers as the final Nato withdrawal approaches.
U.S. President Barack Obama, a former law professor who should know
better, has charged Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart, with
violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, in breach
of international law.
But it is Obama, following in Bush's footsteps, who has repeatedly
and cynically flouted international law by launching or backing myriad
armed attacks on foreign soil, in Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan
to name a few, without U.N. security council authorization. It is
Obama's administration which continues to undermine international law
by refusing to join or recognize the International Criminal Court,
the most important instrument of international justice to have been
developed since 1945.
And it is Obama's State Department, principally in the person of
Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, that fatally overplayed
its hand in the run-up to last month's second Ukraine revolution.
Nuland's infamous "f**k the EU" comment revealed the extent to which
Washington was recklessly maneuvering to undermine Ukraine's elected
pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, by backing the Kiev street
protesters' demands.
The EU had wanted to take things more gradually, for fear of provoking
the very Russian reaction to which the U.S. now so strongly objects.
When the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland, acting
for the EU, negotiated a compromise agreement on February 22 that
envisaged early elections, the crisis appeared to have been defused.
Russia did not like the deal, but seemed ready to go along.
But within 24 hours, the opposition had torn up the agreement. It
forced Yanukovych from power and sacked the government. To alarm in
Moscow, where nightmarish World War II memories linger, Ukrainian
neo-fascists were among those who seized control. They are now part
of the new government in Kiev.
The U.S. almost immediately gave its blessing to what the Kremlin
later described as a "coup d'etat" while the EU, knowing this was
what Washington wanted, just looked on. Little wonder the Russians
were furious at what they saw as a western double cross.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, reflected these worries
when he voiced "most serious concern" over Ukraine in phone calls
to the French, German and Polish foreign ministers. "The opposition
not only has failed to fulfil a single one of its obligations but is
already presenting new demands all the time, following the lead of
armed extremists and pogromists whose actions pose a direct threat
to Ukraine's sovereignty and constitutional order," Lavrov said. But
it was already too late.
Obama and Kerry seem to have calmed down a little since the crisis
first broke. The self-righteous hyperbole about international rights
is less evident, though it has not disappeared entirely. Obama has
heard the many voices in the U.S. and beyond terming this the worst
east-west crisis since the end of the Cold War -- and as the biggest
foreign test of his presidency.
So now he's doing what he does best: talking. In his latest phone
call to Putin, on Thursday this week, Obama put forward a plan
to resolve the stand-off diplomatically. It includes direct talks
between Moscow and Kiev, the return of Russian troops to their bases,
and the deployment of international observers to ensure the rights
of all ethnic groups, including Crimean Russians, are respected.
But don't hold your breath. Putin is in no hurry to back off or
back down.
He has his tail up after a fortnight in which he exposed the hypocrisy
and hollowness of much of western policy and politicians. His
behavior, especially in Crimea, has been dangerous, wrong-headed and
irresponsible in the extreme. In many ways, Putin is an unredeemed
Cold War throwback. He is definitely not the sort of chap one would
invite round for dinner, as a former British diplomat commented. The
crisis could still explode in his and everyone else's face. But it
was not unprovoked.
And the Russian leader has an eye for precedent. Similar battles over
so-called "frozen conflicts" and the rights of isolated ethnic groups
loom elsewhere on Russia's periphery, in Georgia, Moldova, Armenia,
Nagorno-Karabakh, and maybe Belarus and the Baltic states too. Putin
is putting down a marker, even as he plays Obama and Kerry for fools.
Whatever they think in Washington, and whatever the financial markets
say, it's working for him personally. Latest opinion polls in Russia
show Putin's popularity soaring. One of these days western leaders
will drop the pious cant, learn to stop under-estimating him, and
recognize Russia's leader-for-life as the canny, very dangerous,
utterly unscrupulous opponent he is.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/07/opinion/putin-western-hypocrosy/