| Russian President fires at the US’s foreign policy |
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| World Affairs Talk | |
| Wednesday, 16 May 2007 | |
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In the address to an international security conference, Vladimir Putin clearly dropped all diplomatic lusters to recite a long list of complaints about the US domination in global affairs. President Vladimir Putin even rejected to learn democracy from ‘the current world ruler’- the US, saying that Moscow did not need lessons in democracy from “people who did not practise it themselves”. This year's annual security conference event is being attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as well as numerous foreign and defence ministers. Putin set an aggressive tone in his speech by warning the new-unipolar-world led by the US is far less secure than the old balance of power between the US and the former Soviet Union. He also cautioned that the US’s sense of insecurity is driving many countries to produce weapons of mass destruction. The Russian president then criticized the planned deployment of 10 anti-ballistic missile systems by the US to be stationed in Poland and the Czech Republic; probably the prime reason for his anger towards the sole superpower. He said, adding that the US would then have “a feeling of complete security” but this will create a feeling of insecurity to the region itself. Vladimir Putin was also scathing about NATO enlargement into former parts of the Soviet bloc. “NATO expansion is a serious factor which reduces the level of mutual trust,' said Putin. Once a superpower, Russia still has a responsibility to grab the US’s aggressive-foreign-policy-run in the name of ‘feeling secure’. It is for sure that the US’s recent moves on Kosovo and Iran do not match Moscow’s thoughts on the matters. As the US once again trying to impose unrest in Kosovo and a war in Iran, Russia needed to clarify its position and it did. The Russian leader said “Let's not play God and try to resolve all their problems”; rejecting any idea of near-independence for the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo as proposed by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari recently. The President mentioned that a decision could be made by Serbia and Kosovo alone. Russia being an ally to Iran admitted its concern over Iran's nuclear programme but defended delivery of air defence systems to Iran, saying “we do not want Iran to feel cornered in a hostile environment”. And so the Russian President urged the US to be patient with Tehran and to provide incentives to win over the Iranian leadership. “Cooperation is much better than confrontation,” Putin said. Russia however is more concern over its own security and feels anxious over deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic by the US. Putin's remarks were a reminder of the fact that the United States is breaking its promises it made a decade ago that NATO would not move closer to Russian borders. Though there is no possibility remains of occurrence of an another Cold War, a bitter foreign relation between them might take place in the passing decade if the US go on with its plans on deploying the missile systems close to Russia. Share & Bookmark             |
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