The Russian Voice
Mohamad Al Ashab Al-Hayat 2005/05/2
Putin is not Brezhnev. The U.S. wars both in Afghanistan and Iraq look nothing like World War II, which drew a bi-polar politics that ended with the end of the Cold War. There is almost nothing like Putin's visits to Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the Soviet era; back when Abdel Nasser and Palestinian leaders took cover under the Soviet umbrella. In other words, Russian leaders cannot be angered by American statements doubting the current democratic path in Moscow, or to have strong reactions to the American takeover of their former areas of influence. They just have to live with the consequences of the end of the Cold War in the absence of the Russian bear's growl.
Perhaps Putin thought that returning to the international arena through the Middle East is the best option, since other crossing points are slammed shut with the increasing economic and military strengths of the singular American pole.
The time and place of Putin's visit are no expression of weakness against the increasing American pressures, but they are an attempt to rectify America's post-Cold War vision. Of history's ironies is that its end was linked to the first American war on Iraq to drive its invading forces from Kuwait, while this modification attempt from Russia and Europe comes with the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon; not to mention that Damascus and Baghdad were closer to Moscow prior to the collapse of the Eastern bloc's forts. The persistence of American threats to Iran, preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons, are not isolated from more comprehensive arrangements the Russians can plainly see carried out in their geographical neighborhood. Perhaps Putin realized in his talks with the Egyptians that a man named Anwar Sadat destroyed the Soviet Empire long before Gorbatchev's reforms, which eventually led to the final demise of the Soviet Union; which means that the end of the Cold War began with Arab hands. The point being that the effort to correct the post-Cold War peace could begin with Arab hands. Maybe this is the first time Arab and Russian leaders are required to succumb to reforms, the American way. However, Putin, who did not respond to the criticisms of U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice in Moscow, chose to announce the impossibility of applying the American model in the Arab world from Cairo. The significance of this is that the American use of democracy and human rights in facing the former USSR was for strategic reasons.
The rhetoric changes but the goals are the same. Between the assumption that Gorbatchev's reforms led to the dismemberment of the Soviet Empire and the young Iraqi democracy, the picture seems more conceivable; at least that reforms coming from the inside, due to political, economic, and cultural necessities, could stray from their track.
Human history is full of examples on changes that affect states and societies after every war. For international polarity spawned after the two World Wars and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, prior to being influenced by the American handle; its traits were born from the consequences of the Soviet war in Afghanistan. What seems strange in the Arab world is that the view of the American war on Iraq is still governed by the opinion that it is only about Iraq. Moreover, the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon was limited between Beirut and Damascus.
However, it is bigger than that. Perhaps president Putin, by breaking the Arab silence in his last visit wants to stress that the economic and military wars could expand in scope.
|
