The New York Times

March 28, 2003

The Road to St. Petersburg While the Bush administration has decided to punish France for its  opposition to the war in Iraq, it seems inclined to forgive Russia its transgressions*. We would favor mending fences with France as well, but at least the White House understands the importance of repairing relations with the Kremlin so the two nations can work together on common problems.**

To that end, Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, recently traveled to Moscow, and President Bush still plans to visit  President Vladimir Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg this spring for  its 300th anniversary. We hope the meeting will not be another symbolic embrace, but an earnest attempt to turn the good chemistry of the Bush-Putin relationship into an enduring partnership between the two nations.***

The reason is not only that magnanimity in victory is wise, nor even the vast leftover arsenal of Soviet nuclear missiles. The fact is that we need Russia's help on a variety of critical issues. The war on terrorism°, on nuclear proliferation, on the illicit trade in arms or drugs - all these require intense international cooperation. Russia, more than many countries, is critical as an ally.°°

Few countries have as much relevant real estate in the war on terrorism as Russia°°°, whose endless border winds through some of the most explosive regions on two continents. No country has as many arms, technology or experts to proliferate. The Soviet Union had advanced programs in biological and chemical weapons, and Russians know how to combat them.^

Unfortunately, the relationship has been largely one-sided - in Washington's favor - since Mr. Bush famously declared that he had looked into Mr. Putin's soul and found a partner to be trusted^^. Mr. Putin offered considerable help in Afghanistan, and he swallowed NATO expansion and the scuttling of the Antiballistic Missile Treaty. But he has received little in return beyond Washington's misguided decision to go mute on Russia's brutal war in Chechnya.^^^

That puts Mr. Putin in a vulnerable position. He still presides over a governing bureaucracy heavily laced with cold warriors who resent American power, and they have wasted no time in accusing him of kowtowing to Washington˜. This, in fact, is shaping up as the dominant battle in parliamentary elections later this year, and it is one reason Mr. Putin sided so publicly with France and Germany against the American war in Iraq.

A helping hand now from Washington, despite Mr. Putin's stand on Iraq, would go a long way toward demonstrating to his electorate that his opening to the West˜˜ is not a humiliating failure, and it would encourage him to stay the course in his next term. Giving Russia a serious stake in postwar Iraq, for example, would do much to help.˜˜˜

The benefits might extend well beyond retaining Mr. Putin as a soul mate¬. An anxious world is looking for signs that the United States is not the arrogant and vindictive superpower so many fear. Supporting Mr. Putin would also show that the United States is serious about helping emerging democracies¬¬. It wasn't that long ago, after all, that Russia pulled down its own statues.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Comment:

* To call the acts of a regime that regularly violates human rights, works hard to bring back dictatorship in Russia and has already exterminated 15% of the Chechen population as "transgressions" is an euphemism, to say the least.

** How many counter evidences and how much time is needed so that also Western "analysts" will realize that the present political establishment in Russia, with Putin as its head, has not and will not have the slightest intention to do so? To believe that with such a regime one can work seriously together on common problems is a vain chimera.

*** We can attempt every "good chemistry" but this will not turn stones into gold. Exactly as any kind of chemistry couldn't change Saddam Hussein's regime from being the very nature it was. If the US policy won't change and the Russian regime will remain what it is, the US-Russia relationship can not go beyond a "symbolic embrace" even not in principle, simply because this is in the intrinsic nature of the relationship itself.

° And is it wise to call for help on the "war on terrorism" just on those who backed, financed and armed terrorists for a decade in Chechnya?!

°° How long will it take for these analysts to realize that Putin never had any intention to ally? He has no interest at all.

°°° Like Saudi Arabia?

^ Indeed they have a great experience in this: through endless zackisti operations, razing to the ground entire cities, terrorizing the innocent population, digging mass graves, financing terrorist groups that stand on their side and practicing state terrorism.

^^ What looks like the soul of someone who has already at least 80.000 other souls on his conscience?

^^^Yes, indeed. Did this concession bring the US closer to its objectives?

˜ Does this imply that Putin is a friend of America or that he is working to introduce democracy in Russia?

˜˜ So far a true "opening to the West" has been hardly observed. It is incredible how many still believe in Putin's superficial libertarian face. It is unlikely that Putin will ever go against his own KGB minded mentality based on authoritarian, violent and undemocratic principles. Not more as Milosevic would have done.

˜˜˜ Russia indeed needs help, but of exactly the opposite nature: favoring its liberal and democratic part, not by backing mass murders or criminals.

¬ "Mr. Putin as a soul mate"?? Oh, ...

¬¬ Do these people read newspapers? In Russia there is not the slightest sign of an "emerging democracy" but only of a drowning one, thanks to Putin and his entourage who are doing their best in this sense.

What these kind of articles show is, if not bad faith, then certainly total ignorance. The complete lack of awareness among so many Western journalists about what really is happening in Russia is alarming. It underlines Western nations complete unconsciousness on how they are faithfully repeating all the mistakes they did with Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Irak war as with Bin Laden in the Afghan-Russian war. M.M.