- It's been a lot of hard work, but Russian President Vladimir
Putin has finally achieved his goal. He's cleaned up the mess left behind
by Yeltsin, put together a strong and thriving economy, and restored Russia
to a place of honor among the community of nations. His legacy has already
been written. He's the man who rebuilt Russia. The last thing he wants
now, is a pointless confrontation with the United States. But how can it
be avoided? He understands Washington's long-range plans for Russia and
he is taking necessary steps to preempt them. He is familiar with the heavyweights
of US foreign policy, like Zbigniew Brzezinski, and has undoubtedly read
his master-plan for Central Asia, "The Grand Chessboard". Brzezinski's
recent article in Foreign Affairs, (A publication of the Council on Foreign
Relations) "A Geostrategy for Eurasia" summarizes his views on
America's future involvement in the region:
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- "America's emergence as the sole global superpower
now makes an integrated and comprehensive strategy for Eurasia imperative.
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- Eurasia is home to most of the world's politically assertive
and dynamic states. All the historical pretenders to global power originated
in Eurasia. The world's most populous aspirants to regional hegemony, China
and India, are in Eurasia, as are all the potential political or economic
challengers to American primacy. ... Eurasia accounts for 75 percent of
the world's population, 60 percent of its GNP, and 75 percent of its energy
resources. Collectively, Eurasia's potential power overshadows even America's.
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- Eurasia is the world's axial supercontinent. A power
that dominated Eurasia would exercise decisive influence over two of the
world's three most economically productive regions, Western Europe and
East Asia. A glance at the map also suggests that a country dominant in
Eurasia would almost automatically control theMiddle East and Africa. With
Eurasia now serving as the decisive geopolitical chessboard, it no longer
suffices to fashion one policy for Europe and another for Asia. What happens
with the distribution of power on the Eurasian landmass will be of decisive
importance to America's global primacy and historical legacy."
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- So, there it is. The US is moving into the neighborhood
and has no intention of leaving. The war on terror is a fraud; it merely
conceals the fact that Bush is sprinkling military bases throughout Central
Asia and surrounding Russia in the process. Brzezinski sees this as
a "strategic imperative". It doesn't matter what Putin thinks.
According to Brzezinski "NATO enlargement should move forward in deliberate
stages" . The US must make sure "that no state or combination
of states gains the ability to expel the United States or even diminish
its decisive role".
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- This isn't new. Putin has known for some time what Bush
is up to and he's been as accommodating as possible. After all, his real
passion is putting Russia back on its feet and improving the lives of its
citizens. That will have to change now that Bush has decided
to install a "Missile Defense" system in Eastern Europe. Putin
will have to devote more time to blocking America's plans. The new system
will upset the basic balance of power between the nuclear rivals and force
Putin to raise the stakes. A confrontation is brewing whether Putin wants
it or not. The system cannot be deployed. Period. Putin must now do whatever
he is necessary to remove a direct threat to Russia's national security.
That is the primary obligation of every leader and he will not shirk his
responsibility.
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- Putin is an elusive character; neither boastful nor arrogant.
It's clear now that western pundits mistook his reserved, quiet manner
as a sign of superficiality or lack of resolve. They were wrong. They underestimated
the former-KGB Colonel. Putin is bright and tenacious and he has a vision
for his country. He sees Russia as a key player in the new century; an
energy powerhouse that can control its own destiny. He doesn't plan to
get bogged down in avoidable conflicts if possible. He's focused on development
not war; plowshares not swords. He's also fiercely nationalistic; a Russian
who puts Russia first.
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- But Putin is a realist and he knows that the US will
not leave Eurasia without a fight. He's read the US National Security Strategy
and he understands the ideological foundation for America's "unipolar"
world model. The NSS is an unambiguous declaration of war against any nation
that claims the right to to control its own resources or defend its own
sovereignty against US interests. The NSS implies that nations' are required
to open their markets to western multinationals and follow directives from
Washington or accept a place on Bush's "enemies list". There's
no middle ground. You are with us or with the terrorists. The NSS also
entitles the United States to unilaterally wage aggressive warfare against
any state or group that is perceived to be a potential threat to Washington's
imperial ambitions. These so-called "preemptive" wars are carried
out under the rubric of the "war on terror" which provides the
justification for torture, abduction, ethnic cleansing and massive civilian
casualties.
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- US National Security Strategy articulates in black and
white what many critics had been saying for years; the United States owns
the world and everyone else is just a guest.
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- Putin knows that there's no way to reconcile this doctrine
with his own aspirations for an independent Russia but, so far, a clash
has been averted.
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- He also knows that Bush is flanked by a band of fanatics
and militarists who plan to weaken Russia, install an American stooge (like
Georgia and Afghanistan) and divide the country into four regions. This
strategy is clearly presented in forward-planning documents that have been
drawn up in Washington think tanks that chart the course for US world domination.
Brzezinski is quite candid about this in his article in Foreign Affairs:
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- "Given (Russia's) size and diversity, a decentralized
political system and free-market economics would be most likely to unleash
the creative potential of the Russian people and Russia's vast natural
resources. A loosely confederated Russia -- composed of a European Russia,
a Siberian Republic, and a Far Eastern Republic -- would also find it easier
to cultivate closer economic relations with its neighbors. Each of the
confederated entitles would be able to tap its local creative potential,
stifled for centuries by Moscow's heavy bureaucratic hand. In turn, a decentralized
Russia would be less susceptible to imperial mobilization." (Zbigniew
Brzezinski,"A Geostrategy for Eurasia")
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- Partition is a common theme in imperial planning whether
its called apartheid in Israel, federalizing in Iraq, "limited independence"
in Kosovo, or "loose confederation" in Russia. It's all the same.
Divide and rule; undermine nationalism by destroying the underlying culture
and balkanizing the territory. This isn't new. What is amazing, is that
Bush's plan is going forward despite 7 years of uninterrupted foreign policy
failures. Hubris and self-delusion have a longer shelf-life than anyone
could have imagined.
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- Putin is surrounded by ex-KGB hardliners who have warned
him that America cannot be trusted. They have watched while the US has
steadily moved into the former-Soviet satellites, pushed NATO to Russia's
borders, and precipitated regime change via "color coded" revolutions.
They point to Chechen war where US intelligence services trained Chechen
insurgents through their ISI surrogates in Pakistan-teaching them how to
conduct guerrilla operations in a critical region that provides Russia
with access to the western shores of the resource-rich Caspian Basin.
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- 1.
- Michel Chossudovsky has done some excellent research
on this little-known period of Russian history. In his article "The
Anglo-American Military Axis", he says:
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- "U.S. covert support to the two main Chechen rebel
groups (through Pakistan's ISI) was known to the Russian government and
military. However, it had previously never been made public or raised at
the diplomatic level. In November 1999, the Russian Defense Minister, Igor
Sergueyev, formally accused Washington of supporting the Chechen rebels.
Following a meeting held behind closed doors with Russia's military high
command, Sergueyev declared that:
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- 'The national interests of the United States require
that the military conflict in the Caucasus [Chechnya] be a fire, provoked
as a result of outside forces", while adding that "the West's
policy constitutes a challenge launched to Russia with the ultimate aim
of weakening her international position and of excluding her from geo-strategic
areas.'"
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- In the wake of the 1999 Chechen war, a new "National
Security Doctrine" was formulated and signed into law by Acting President
Vladimir Putin, in early 2000. Barely acknowledged by the international
media, a critical shift in East-West relations had occurred. The document
reasserted the building of a strong Russian State, the concurrent growth
of the Military, as well as the reintroduction of State controls over foreign
capital....The document carefully spelled out what it described as "
fundamental threats" to Russia's national security and sovereignty.
More specifically, it referred to "the strengthening of military-political
blocs and alliances" [namely GUUAM], as well as to "NATO's eastward
expansion" while underscoring "the possible emergence of foreign
military bases and major military presences in the immediate proximity
of Russian borders." (Michel Chossudovsky, "The Anglo-American
Military Axis", Global Research)
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- That's right; there's been a low-grade secret war
going on between Russia and the US for over a decade although it is rarely
discussed in diplomatic circles. The war in Chechnya is probably less about
"succession" and independence, than it is about foreign intervention
and imperial overreach.
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- The same rule applies to the controversy surrounding
Kosovo. The Bush administration and its EU clients are trying to fragment
Serbia by supporting an initiative for Kosovo "limited independence".
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- But why "limited"?
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- It's because Bush knows that the resolution has
no chance of passing the UN Security Council, so the only way to circumvent
international law is by issuing a unilateral edict that is promoted
in the media as "independence". By this same standard, Abraham
Lincoln should have granted Jefferson Davis "limited independence"
and avoided the Civil War altogether.
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- Author Irina Lebedeva reveals the real motives behind
the administration's actions on Kosovo in her article "USA-Russia:
Hitting the same Gate, or playing the same game?"
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- "The North Atlantic alliance (The US and its EU
allies) documents indicate that the bloc aims at the "Balkanization"
of the post-Soviet space by way of overtaking influence in the territories
of the currently frozen conflicts and their follow-up internalization along
the Yugoslavian lines are set down in black and white. For example, a special
report titled "The New North Atlantic Strategy for the Black Sea Region",
prepared by the German Marshall Fund of the United States on the occasion
of the NATO summit, already refers to Black Sea and South Caucasus (Transcaucasia)
as a "new Euro-Atlantic borderland plagued by Soviet-legacy conflicts."
And the "region of frozen conflicts is evolving into a functional
aggregate on the new border of an enlarging West." Azerbaijan and
Georgia in tandem, the report notes, provide a unique transit corridor
for Caspian energy to Europe, as well as an irreplaceable corridor for
American-led and NATO to bases and operation theatres in Central Asia and
the Greater Middle East."
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- Once again, divide and rule; this time writ large for
an entire region that is being arbitrarily redrawn to meet the needs of
mega-corporations that want to secure "transit corridors for Caspian
energy to Europe". The new Great Game. Brzezinski has called this
area a critical "land-bridge" to Eurasia. Others refer to it
as a "new Euro-Atlantic borderland". Whatever one calls it; it
is a good illustration of how bloodthirsty Washington mandarins carve up
the world to suit their own geopolitical objectives.
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- Putin has seen enough and he's now moving swiftly to
counter US incursions in the region. He's not going to wait until the neocon
fantasists affix a bullseye to his back and take aim. In the last few weeks
he has withdrawn Russia from the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty
(CFE) and is threatening to redeploy his troops and heavy weaponry to Russia's
western-most borders. The move does nothing to enhance Russian security,
but it will arouse public concern in Europe and perhaps ignite a backlash
against Bush's Missile Defense system.
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- Russian Navy Admiral Vladimir Masorin also announced
this week that Russia will move part of its fleet to Syrian ports where
"it will maintain a permanent presence in the Mediterranean. Israeli
leaders are in a panic over the announcement claiming that the move will
disrupt their "electronic surveillance and air defense centers"
thus threatening their national security. Putin intends to go ahead with
the plan regardless. Dredging has already begun in the port of Tartus and
a dock is being built in the Syrian port of Latakia.
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- Also, Russian officials are investigating the possibility
of building military bases in Serbia and have been invited to discuss the
issue with leaders in the Serbian Nationalist Radical Party (SRS) The prospective
dialogue is clearly designed to dissuade the US from pursuing its present
policy towards Kosovo.
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- Russia also delivered its first shipment of nuclear fuel
to Iran this week which means that the controversial 1,000 watt nuclear
plant at Bushehr could be fully operational within three months. Adding
insult to injury, Iranian officials announced on Monday their plans to
build a second plant in defiance of US orders to halt its nuclear activities.
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- Also, on Monday, "Russia test-launched a new intercontinental
ballistic missile part of a system that can outperform any anti-missile
system likely to be deployed" according to Reuters. "The missile
was launched from the Tula nuclear-powered submarine in the Barents Sea
in the Arctic."
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- "The military hardware now on our weapons, and those
that will appear in the next few years, will enable our missiles to outperform
any anti-missile system, including future systems," Col.-Gen Nikolai
Solovtsov was quoted as telling journalists." (Reuters)
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- Bush's Missile Defense system has restarted the nuclear
arms race. Welcome to the new Cold War.
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- Finally, Russia Chief of Staff, General Yuri Balyevsky
warned:
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- "A possible launch of a US interceptor missile from
Central Europe may provoke a counterattack from intercontinental ballistic
missiles....If we suppose thatIran wants to strike the United States ,
then interceptor missiles which would be launched from Poland will fly
towards Russia and the shape and flight trajectory are very similar to
ICBMs" (Novosti Russian News Agency)
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- Balyevsky's scenario of an "accidental" World
War 3 is more likely than ever now that Bush is pressing ahead with his
plans for Missile Defense. Russia's automated missile warning systems can
be triggered automatically when foreign missiles enter Russian air
space. Its a dangerous game and potentially fatal every living thing on
the planet.
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- To great extent, the American people have no idea of
the reckless policy that is being carried out in their name. The gravity
of the proposed Missile Defense system has been virtually ignored by the
media and Russia's protests have been dismissed as trivial. But hostilities
are steadily growing, military forces and weaponry are being put into place,
and the stage is set for a major conflagration. This is every bit as serious
as the Cuban Missile Crisis, only this time Russia cannot afford to stand
down.
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- Putin will not allow the system to be deployed even if
he has to remove it through force of arms. It is a direct threat to Russia's
national security. We would expect no different from our own leaders.
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