Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Middle East rift mars US-Russia 'reset'
Russian moves to reassure an embattled Syrian leadership and enthusiasm for the Hamas-Fatah pact are further damaging a United States-Russia "reset" already deadlocked on missile defense. Moscow has watched aghast as the Western desire for regime change that it effectively sanctioned unfolds in Libya, and it cannot allow a similar fate to fall upon Damascus. The rift over the Arab Spring underpins the retreat of the "reset" that is already visible. Read my article on the prospects of the US-Russia presidential diplomacy at the G-8 at Deauville om Thursday.
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"Moscow's stance on the Middle East - Libya and Syria in particular - underpins the retreat from "reset". "
Finally, Medvedev is starting to realize that there is no 'reset' (or, rather, that he cannot continue to pretend there is one). The whole point of the 'reset' was to force Russia to keep making one-sided concessions to the US, while the US offers nothing in return. A retreat from such a 'reset' is long overdue.
As aptly commented above: The whole point of the 'reset' was to force Russia to keep making one-sided concessions to the US, while the US offers nothing in return.
And now, after, indeed, rubbing the salt into the wound of cornered Russians, the experienced colonialist psychologists have come up with a clever twist to their “contact group” idea: why wouldn’t you Russkis become our representatives, and, through some “mediating” ( :-) ), accomplish our objectives? (Psychology 101: first wound the subject’s pride, then follow by bestowing ample patronizing flattery upon the subject...)
Of all places, even NYT observes (27 May 2011):
“... By signing on to the effort, Mr. Medvedev is taking a gamble. If Colonel Qaddafi could be persuaded to leave, Russia would win international plaudits but would also bear some responsibility for guaranteeing his safety. If he cannot, Mr. Medvedev might find it more difficult to keep his distance from the military campaign, which is not popular in Russia. ...”
That said Mr. Medvedev himself is already overwhelmingly not popular in Russia would hardly be an overstatement.
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