Russia says the West is spreading nasty stories about it and that its
damaging relations between the two sides, but is there any basis to
them? Fiona Clark takes a look.
Russians have been speaking in a
conciliatory tone recently. Take Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's article published a few weeks ago in the magazine "Russia and Global Affairs."
"We are not seeking confrontation with the United States, or the
European Union, or NATO. On the contrary, Russia is open to the widest
possible cooperation with its Western partners," he wrote.
He argued Russia was misunderstood and still viewed in the now obsolete pre-WWII view of a totalitarian aggressor.
"The notion of the 'clash of two totalitarianisms,' which is now
actively inculcated in European minds, including at schools, is
groundless and immoral. The Soviet Union, for all its evils, never aimed
to destroy entire nations."
His views were echoed this week by Russia's Deputy Defense Minister
Anatoly Antonov. In an interview with DW, the minister said this
"spreading of scary stories has to stop - rumors that Russia will send
its tanks into the Baltics, into Sofia or into Budapest. No one intends
to do that. There are no such plans, nothing. Russia does not want war.
The very idea of it is ridiculous."
Crying wolf
He laid the blame at the feet of the Baltic nations - Latvia, Lithuania
and Estonia, whose tactic of "screaming 'the Russians are coming, run
for your lives'" had "proved very effective in securing more military
spending from the government and also gaining the attention of financial
backers in Western Europe."
It's also been very effective in gaining the attention of NATO with the US Defense Department announcing it would
boost its troop numbers
in Europe up to three fully-manned Army brigades as part of its
"commitment to increased assurance and deterrence." It also announced it
would begin storing equipment, known as 'Army pre-positioned stocks,'
within Europe for contingency operations. The reason given for what it
described as a "big step" was "reassuring our NATO allies and partners
in the wake of an aggressive Russia in Eastern Europe and elsewhere."
Asymmetrical response
This has not gone down well in Moscow, prompting anything but
conciliatory words in response. Russia's envoy to NATO, Aleksandr
Grushko, retaliated by vowing a "totally asymmetrical" response if the
alliance stands by a plan and deploys
new armoured units to Eastern Europe.
"We are not passive observers, we consistently take all the military
measures we consider necessary in order to counterbalance this
reinforced presence that is not justified by anything," he told the TV
channel Russia-24. "Certainly, we'll respond totally asymmetrically."
But is such a response justified? While the country claims it's not an
aggressor, its actions speak louder than its words. Crimea and Ukraine
aside, its violations of European air and sea space suggest anything but
a peace-loving, friendly attitude.
In the nine months between April and November 2014 there were 39
incidents involving armed Russian fighter jets or naval craft between
the UK and the Baltics. A further eight incidents were reported between
November and May 2015, some involving near misses with civilian aircraft
and diversions of passenger planes.
Russia may argue this show of strength is a natural response to what it
sees as an aggressive NATO on its border, but somewhere along the line
the two sides are going to have to sit down and sort this out. And that
won't be easy, US president, Barack Obama wants to talk about reductions
in nuclear arsenals before he leaves office, but with a build-up of US
troops in Europe it's not likely Russia will be listening.
Propaganda war
In fact Russia is expecting relations between it and the West
to deteriorate even further. The Kremlin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov,
has warned Russians to expect an avalanche of negative press about
President Vladimir Putin as the West continues its bid to "destabilize"
the country, and the deputy foreign minister, Sergey Ryabkov, has
criticized US presidential candidates for "blackening" Russia's name to
boost their ratings without considering the effect on bilateral
relations.
"Many US presidential candidates … behave like Cold War troopers when
they 'ride' the anti-Russian rhetoric. This is regrettable and it does
not promise any changes for the better in our relations with the United
States after the elections there," Ryabkov told the newspaper Izvestia.
Lavrov hopes that Germany, France, Italy and Spain understand that it's
impossible to solve the security issues affecting Europe, the Middle
East and Asia without Russia's help and will push for closer
cooperation. The UK, however, may not join that bandwagon - not yet
anyway.
Foreign secretary Philip Hammond recently told Reuters he wasn't
convinced Russia was a reliable partner and if Reuters is right in its
report that claims Russia is
shipping more military hardware to Syria
than its pulling out, Hammond may well be right in thinking that the
conciliatory rhetoric is little more than hollow platitudes.
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