[lbo-talk] Stage Is Set for a Multipolar World

[Chris Doss]

Rosbalt, 17/05/2004, 10:05 Konstantin Kosachev: Stage Is Set for a Multipolar World
Everything now points to the fact that the United States is not up to the role of sole world leader. It is already clear that international stability is better ensured by the presence of several power centers. One of those centers might become Russia, which needs to reclaim its position as a world power, according to the chairman of the Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachev. In an interview with Rosbalt, he spoke of his view of Russia's foreign policy, and of Russia's role in the resolution of the Iraqi crisis. 
There is a view that during the first four years of President Vladimir Putin's term, Russia surrendered its international position. Russians began traveling to Kaliningrad by special permission, our military quit its bases in Vietnam and Cuba. At the same time, the Americans placed their bases in Central Asia, and NATO forces are set to replace the Russians in Georgia. Do you agree that Russia's foreign policy, based on those examples, has been a failure? 
I categorically disagree with that view. The foreign policy being formulated by the Russian president is the optimal one. One should not forget that it is being carried out in difficult circumstances. Russia has considerably fewer means to realize its interests than did the USSR in its time. Overall, I would divide current Russian diplomacy into three stages. 
The first, which existed at the beginning of the 1990s, can be called the Yeltsin-Kozyrev stage. Russia was weak, and its foreign policy was not self-supporting. We tried to secure our interests at the expense of our national sovereignty. That, by the way, is what many other governments unable to overcome their Soviet past continue to do. They are now sacrificing their independence in the interest of the European Union or NATO. 
The second half of the 1990s was the stage of Yeltsin-Primakov. Russia was just as weak, but its foreign policy was already self-supporting and independent. The culmination of that policy was the famous recall of Primakov's airplane over the Atlantic when the war in Yugoslavia broke out. 
The third stage I call the Putin stage. Russia became stronger and stopped depending on the world's goodwill for the resolution of its problems. As the result of the fact that the country's economic potential is growing, it is possible to construct a foreign policy oriented not on partners, but on one's own pragmatic understanding of our national interests. In that sense, our foreign policy is a successful one.

http://www.rosbaltnews.com/2004/05/20/66611.html

		
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