#9 Russia Reacts to War in Yugoslavia Prepared by David Johnson for CDI's Weekly Defense Monitor
President Yeltsin: "Our fundamental position is not to get sucked into a big war and not to deliver arms....I repeat again Russia will not get involved if the Americans do not push us."
Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev: "The plans to strengthen the armed forces are explained by the new strategic concept of NATO, under which the alliance intends to use force without the UN Security Council's consent -- in any part of the world."
General Viktor Chechevatov (Commander of ground forces in Far East region): "The bombing of Yugoslavia could turn out in the very near future to be just a rehearsal for similar strikes on Russia."
Aleksandr Lebed (governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai): "The Americans are used to fighting television wars. For them war is like a Star Wars movie. It is nothing of the kind. The Serbs have strong morale and centuries-old traditions of partisan warfare. Their country will be demolished but not defeated in bombing."
Mikhail Gorbachev: "The position of the U.N. Security Council has been undermined, and now Europe has been shown who is the boss -- and I know this because I hear it from the Europeans. Russia is being humiliated....
`This will push an arms race in every country in the world. There is a real threat that in many countries there may be an effort to get...weapons of mass destruction. I believe this will also give impetus to terrorism."
Alexander Solzhenitsyn: "Casting off the United Nations and its charter, NATO is imposing on the whole world and the next century an ancient law...whoever's strongest is right. In the eyes of humanity, a wonderful European country is being destroyed, and civilized governments are applauding."
Alexei Arbatov (moderate member of Parliament): "This is the most dangerous crisis between Russia and the U.S. since the Cuban missile crisis."
Aman Tuleyev (governor of Kemerovo): "The war in Yugoslavia should unite us. We have to change our attitude to the army and think that if the United States changes its adversaries each time -- now it is Iraq and then Yugoslavia -- then we can be the next."
Patriarch Aleksiy II (head of Russian Orthodox Church): "The Orthodox Easter lies ahead. So, if they carry on bombing over the Orthodox Easter, what kind of Christians are they? They are not Christians. They are barbarians."
Moscow Times editorial: "From the start, NATO has bluffed and blundered its way through the Balkans, and now it finds itself backing into a ground war in Europe - slowly, inexorably and without any one real consensus as to why."
Sergey Karaganov (head of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, member of the Presidential Council): "If looking at the Serbs we have realized how vulnerable we are and will start sorting out our problems, this will be our salvation. But if we opt for sorting out other people's problems to the detriment or at the expense of Russian problems, or for saving the West or saving the Serbs at Russia's expense, then this will be our undoing. We are quite close to a very dangerous threshold because we are falling to pieces but if we get directly involved in this situation, we will be finished off."
Yegor Gaidar (former reformist prime minister): "What is going on has a very serious and negative influence on Russian-U.S. relations. I am afraid this [outcome] can be a long-term one. If today's tendency continues, [I think] it could inevitably bring the restoration of the Cold War -- in a different form, not as in the '60s. Russia [now] is different. The world is different. But the creation of relations like during the Cold War [is possible,] with a Russia that is afraid of the world, of NATO, of America, has missiles, a mobilized economy, is friendly with authoritarian and rogue regimes, helps them with technologies, helps them create nuclear weapons."
Sovetskaya Rossiya (leftwing newspaper): "The U.S. missiles exploding in Yugoslavia had very loud and unexpected repercussions in Russia. The tumultuous protest rallies around the U.S. Embassy in Moscow mark the entry into the political arena of hitherto 'slumbering' social forces. The bombing of Serbia has led to the radicalization of youth. The United States has suffered a massive political defeat in Russia: The fruits of its efforts over many years and the many billions spent on indoctrinating Russian youth in the spirit of 'Western values' were destroyed in a trice."
Russian tax advisor to British Moscow-based journalist Helen Womack: "Tito settled the Albanians in Kosovo, rather as Stalin moved populations in the Soviet Union. The Albanians had bigger families than the Serbs, so that they came to outnumber them in the historic heart of Serbia. There is a Serb point of view here too. Why are you taking sides in a complicated issue you know too little about? Why don't you listen to Russia? Do you think because we are economically weak, our opinion does not count?"
Alexander Pikayev (analyst at Carnegie's Moscow Center): "I'm afraid that now it is serious; we see some sort of consensus in society which we haven't seen since 1991. Then, it was a broad anti-communist consensus. Now, unfortunately, we face a strong anti-NATO consensus, which could have a very dramatic impact on the overall U.S.-Russian relationship. In August, we saw the collapse of Yeltsin's market-reform policy and in March, we saw the collapse of Yeltsin's foreign and security policy."
Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov (head of the Defense Ministry's Main Directorate for International Military Cooperation: "NATO has negated the fundamental principles upon which Russia's relations with this bloc were based....I feel ashamed when I look at the signatures in the Founding Act put by the heads of state who have spat at them now....There is no guarantee that the NATO countries will comply with the agreements to be reached in the future....It is hard to say when a constructive period in relations with NATO will be resumed."
****** ------- David Johnson home phone: 301-588-3861 work phone: 202-332-0600 ext. 107 email: davidjohnson at erols.com fax: 1-202-478-1701 (Jfax; comes direct to email) home address:
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Web page for CDI Russia Weekly: http://www.cdi.org/russia
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