Blow for Bush as Russia agrees £27bn Iraq deal

Russia has dealt a potentially serious blow to American attempts to isolate Iraq after it announced a £27 billion trade agreement with Saddam Hussein.

The agreement, which will have to be approved by the United Nations, wraps together dozens of separate deals involving oil, electrical energy, chemical products, irrigation, railroad construction and transport, over the next five years, officials in Moscow said yesterday.

Russian companies already dominate Iraq's limited oil export trade under the UN oil-for-food programme.

Oleg Buklemeshev, a senior deputy to President Putin, confirmed that "the document is being prepared", adding that it was "in line with current international agreements".

The Bush administration shied away from public criticism of Moscow. A White House spokesman said: "We're confident Russia understands its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions and will abide by them."

Previous framework agreements between Moscow and Baghdad have frequently failed to translate into hard cash for either side, but Iraqi officials hailed the deal as strongly symbolic of Russia's continued friendship.

Abbas Khalaf, the Iraqi ambassador to Moscow, told the Washington Post: "Russia was, is and will be our main partner. What we need from Moscow is moral, political and diplomatic support."

The ambassador, a close aide to Saddam, predicted that the agreement would be marked by a high-profile signing ceremony, ideally in Baghdad.

Such an event would provoke irritation and dismay in Washington, where senior figures are still locked in semi-public debate over the scale and timing of any assault on Iraq.

Since September 11, President Bush has gone out of his way to emphasise the closeness of his working relationship with Mr Putin.

The Russian leader has proved vocally supportive of the war against terror. United States officials have talked of the warm friendship between the two men, revealing that Mr Bush's nickname for the Russian president is "Pootie-Poot".

But Russia has done little to scale back Soviet-era ties with the countries in Mr Bush's "axis of evil" - Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

• Bahrain, a key ally of the United States in the Gulf, yesterday joined Iran in opposing American military action against Iraq.

"Iran and Bahrain declare their determined opposition to any unilateral military action against Iraq," said a joint statement issued at the end of a two-day visit to Teheran by Bahrain's king, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

Idiotic statements (many of these seen previously here on Free Republic, and, to our shame, written by people who claim to be either Rightists or Conservatives....):

1. "The Cold War is over, come out of your bunker."

2. "The Russians are our friends / allies."

3. "The Russians look Westward , Eurasianism is dead."

4. "Russia `fights terrorism' in Chechnya, therefore, we are in league."

5. "The Russian military has fallen apart."

6. "Russia and the PRC are enemies." [This fiction was started during the 1960s based on what we thought were border conflicts. It also was a key point in wishful thinking that allowed the quasi RINO Nixon administration to justify backing off on our goals of military capability to be able to win a war against the Eastern Bloc. Being duped into believing in the "China Card" shall go down in history as an epic error in Western geopolitical strategy.]

7. "Russia is owned by the West."

8. "Russia is capitalist now."

In response to these fictions, I have the following cutting questions:

A. Why was there never a formal treaty to end the Cold War?

B. How come none of the Communists (save those in Romania) were ever punished or, even, banned from future positions of power?

C. Why were the disarmament provisions so limited?

D. Why is it that, for all intents and purposes, Russia continues to arm the same client states they armed when they were the USSR, and why have they added new ones such as the PRC, Myanmar and a number of nations in Africa?

ANSWERS!!! I WANT ANSWERS!!!

Good day! ;)

(so far so good ... all of a sudden the header dawned on me and I whipped off the bandana -- Fred25 suggested -- to come see if it were true ... )

Looks like Russia puts her money where her mouth is. The most pithy and elegant "nyet nyet Nanette" thus far.

I'm almost afraid to read any of the comments but Belmont_mark's ... bet everyone's got our Friend's latest move all figured out. The pragmatists, anyway. =)

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