Moscow halts military co-operation with Nato
by Michael Evans, Defence Editor
Russia tried to seize the high ground over its relations with Nato today when it told the alliance it planned to halt all military cooperation until further notice.
Nato foreign ministers, however, had already made it clear at its emergency meeting on Georgia in Brussels on Tuesday that it could not envisage convening a Nato-Russia Council session until all Russian troops had been withdrawn from Georgia.
The military freeze between Russia and the alliance became official today. Under the security partnership with Nato, Russia has been cooperating on counter-terrorism and consulting on regional issues where Moscow and the West have mutual interests.
“We have received notification from the Russians through military channels and they say that they have decided to halt international military-cooperation events between Russia and Nato countries until further instruction,” a spokeswoman for the alliance said.
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The freeze has already led to the cancellation of Russian naval participation in an alliance exercise in the Baltic Sea and the planned visit to Russia of a US frigate has been scrapped. The White House said the Russian decision was “unfortunate”.
The freeze on military cooperation is likely to last for some time. Even if the Russian troops pull out of Georgia, Nato officials are saying that Russia must withdraw to the position it was in pre-August 6/7 when the conflict in the region began.
This means that Russia will be expected to remove all of its troops back into Russian territory except for the 600-1,000 “peacekeepers” who were serving in South Ossetia, the breakaway Georgian region. Moscow is currently insisting that up to 500 Russian troops will remain in Georgia itself and that the peacekeeping force in South Ossetia will be boosted by several thousand extra troops.
A thread about (geo-)politics between east and west. Because there's more to come, so it seems...
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 21 August 2008 18:06 (seventeen years ago)
I liked the Russians better when they were poorer.
This is what happens when the Federal Reserve tries to pump huge sums of money into a totally unsound economy that massively misallocates capital: it all ends up in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia.
All I can say is that it is a good thing that China shares a long border with Russia and is growing wealthy even faster than Russia, and although China is a hegemonic power, it is not nearly as expansionist as Russia has been in the past five centuries, and currently China has far fewer designs on its neighbors (apart from Taiwan).
Consequently, China should be more than happy to put checks on Russian ambition, when it can be done thriftily. This is a major reason why Russia is looking more to its southwest border, far away from China, to claim its sphere of influence.
OTOH, Europe is going to be very leery of upsetting Russia, so long as Russia is one of their major oil/gas suppliers. And it would help a lot if the USA weren't so fucking maladroit at geopolitics that we keep undercutting our own strength and pumping up our enemies.
― Aimless, Thursday, 21 August 2008 18:27 (seventeen years ago)
I see your point, and agree on most of it, but ultimately to me the 'maladroit geopolitics' of the USA is much more alarming to me in this matter than the financial situation. China and Russia have been, and still are today, good buddies. The rise of China as a power nation won't stop Russia from becoming one as well.
To me, it has been made painfully clear that America is too self-absorbed right now to be enticed with balancing the different forces in the world. The USA didn't act on the Georgia situation like it would have in the Reagan/Bush I/Clinton years, for instance. It was too reactive. The fact that Russia got so little (diplomatic) resistance was very much like a signal of 'go ahead Russia, we're busy with other things right now'. Proving America isn't the world's strongest nation anymore, not in a geopolitical sense anyway. Russia seemingly is so self-confident that it can invade Georgia without any repercussions (I'm not being judgemental about that, that's what the other thread is for). Putin (Medvedev is just a puppet on Vladimir's string) just tell's the NATO it wants full support, or else they can sod off. And indeed, I would not be surprised if Russia shuts down the oil supply to Europe because of this - Europe can't go back on this, it reacted in disgust to Russia's invasion too much to do that.
Russia's eye never left the southwest border. They don't want those republics to join the NATO, simply because of the divide between Russia and the west. Russia makes havoc in those small countries because it benefits from it.
A 'rise' of China won't do the USA any good, I think. China's already keeping the USA together financially. If Beijing decides it's a good idea to sell all their dollars one day, at once, the USA are up for bankrupcy, if I understand it correctly.
Just some thoughts.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 21 August 2008 20:03 (seventeen years ago)