By Its Own Choice, Russia Is Our Enemy

During the Cold War, it always seemed the Russians were menacing because they were communists. Maybe the communists were menacing because they were Russians.

During the same week in which Russia invaded Georgia, pulled back, accepted a truce, then invaded again, the Russian foreign minister point blank threatened to launch a nuclear attack on Poland. They’re not happy that the Poles agreed to host American missile interceptors.

However over the Cold War may be, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Russia – against all apparent logical self-interest – prefers to be America’s enemy.

The Russians, who claim to have no further imperialist designs on the rest of the world, consider both western missile defenses and the spread of democracy as threats to their interests. Don’t protect yourself from despotism, and for goodness sakes, don’t protect yourself from nuclear attacks. The Russians don’t like that.

I think it’s both the Russian nature and a desire to keep all the petrodollars headed their way.

I think something like this would have happened at some point even without Putin. Russia has always been a strangely self-obssessed country, endlessly worrying about its image, its power, etc. At the same time, the bear is a very appropriate symbol for the Russians in their social interactions on a national scale: greedy, powerful, seizing whatever they want, and dangerously unpredictable.

I'm sure one of the reasons the Russians are difficult is their rapid fall from communist superpower to weaker non-communist non-superpower. I think they rather enjoyed their status as a world superpower even if they had a third-world economy. They still have a powerful military,and national pride is probably driving a lot of this noncompliance with the West. They do like the idea of an alliance where the old arch-enemy, the U.S., is cracking the whip.

Other things I want to know about Russia is how much the infrastructure has changed since the fall of communism. How many Russians have cars? What kind of road system do they have? Can a foreigner drive around Russia? Do far more Russians own their homes since 1991? Very little news about Russia is distributed in the west. Do Russians feel part of Europe, or do they feel separate from other Europeans? The latest grim news makes it seem like Russia would prefer to be the grump at the party, when given Russia's enormous natural resources, it could be a economic powerhouse. Just how distant are the Russians?

During the Cold War, it always seemed the Russians were menacing because they were communists. Maybe the communists were menacing because they were Russians.

That conclusion would be incorrect. No, communists and fascists are menacing because they are communists and fascists, Russian or not. Socialists anywhere, including American socialists are no less dangerous than any others.

Putin had a choice and invitation from President Bush early on to join and be a part of the elite of civilized and democratic world, an exclusive club. He thought he should be at least the head of the club, if not "own" it.

Czar Vlad the Infantile chose a fascist econo-political system and isolation instead, and now he and Russia are living it.

Putin is opportunist and he chose the wrong "opportunity" (Georgia) to show it, but he may not have had a better one, given the path he had chosen. We need to remember that Soviet Union was not brought down militarily, it was brought down economically. Russia's temporary economic well-being, based on natural resource commodities prices, is already crumbling (with oil dropping and Russian stock index RTS at near 3 year low and foreign investment drying up and Russia's sphere of influence and number of "clients" around the world shrinking rapidly, especially after Iraq falling and North Korea defanged as source of trouble for the West and US).

His attempt to expand Russian "empire" by proxies spectacularly failed as a result of our WOT and he now feels caged in and having to "take matters into his own hands" and save the remnants of his perceived sphere of influence from falling out forever. Hence all these infantile threats to former Soviet republics and satellites which will only speed up the fallout.

Faced with firm response ("This is not 1968! Things have changed! The Cold War is over and you lost") he may enjoy his small scale military victory while he can, but I doubt he can enjoy them for long, as he now has driven even people / countries who were willing to give him benefit of the doubt into looking for protection and closer military and economic ties with US. Where is the EU's "Counterweight to US Commission" now? Putin is, probably inadvertently, helping us expand our (democratic and benevolent) sphere of influence, without us wanting or having to be an "empire".

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