Russia: A Practical Adversary

My friend down the aisle wonders if Russia is a friend or foe of the United States. He cites the country's reaction to the crisis in North Korea and the Israel's attacks on Lebanon. He believes that Russia has a financial stake in North Korea and Iraq and does not want to let the US do what is right for the security and peace of the entire world.

We cannot look at Russia as a friend or foe, but as an adversary on the geopolitical stage. Clearly, our interests do not coincide with theirs, but does that make them our sworn enemy? Not so. On the issue of nuclear terrorism, both countries agree it is a serious issue and promised to help each other find nukes that can be sold on the black market. In combating terrorism, Russia and the US do not always see eye-to-eye. For example, when Russia was battling Checken militants who were trying to win independence, the US actually sided with the rebels calling for elections and a vote to determine if Chechnya should break away from Russia. Naturally, Putin was not pleased by this. After the events of 9/11, the US made an about face and agreed with Russia that the militants were fundamentalist Islamic radicals and the US actually congratulated Putin when Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev was killed.

Now for North Korea, Russia clearly prefers that all diplomatic efforts be made before it chooses to support economic sanctions or a military airstrike on its nuclear facilities. First, the Russian Federation is practically next door to North Korea, and it does share a small border with them. The rest of the border is shared with China. Now both countries do not want to push too quickly. In the event of an armed conflict, these two countries plus South Korea and Japan will suffer the consequences that could occur. For the US, the closest territory is Guam plus their military forces in South Korea and Japan. Now look at civilian populations, the US has the advantage since Guam is in the middle of the Pacific.

Now, I am sure my friend is delighted that the UNSC has unanimously passed a resolution sanctioning North Korea, but of course our communist neighbor has stated that it will reject the resolution and that the US and any other nation cannot prevent them from building a deterrent against any aggression. The resolution bans all UN member states from selling material or technology for missiles or weapons of mass destruction to North Korea, and from receiving missles, banned weapons or technology from Pyongyang. Note that in order to get the unanimous vote and no Chinese veto, the resolution was amended to drop the clause about using Chapter 7 of the UN Charter to levy sanctions and military force in case of noncompliance.

As for Iraq, President Putin took a jab at Bush during the press conference. Bush remarked that Russia should develop a free press and religion just like what they are doing in Iraq. Putin replied back, "We certainly would not want to have same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, quite honestly." People can analyse these statements as much as they want, but we can see flaws with both of the leaders' statements.

But in any case, these examples do show that Russia do not agree with us, but that's life in the diplomatic world. Realistically, the US cannot just take unilateral action and bomb North Korea's nuclear facilities. Most neo-cons would support such an action but can they easily predict the reaction from China and Russia? Maybe, maybe not. In this world, not everyone thinks the same, and Russia's perspective out of all of this is probably keep the US tied down and hope that their proposals would end the crisis, not the Americans.