Nomination of New U.S. Ambassador to Russia Should Be Defeated
In a recent op-ed for the Moscow Times discussing the nomination of Michael McFaul as the USA’s next ambassador to Russia, Dmitri Trenin of the Carnegie Foundation’s Moscow Center listed a trio of gifts that McFaul should bring with him to Moscow: memberships in the World Trade Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and repeal of the Jackson-Vanik amendment to the 1974 Trade Act.
Conspicuously absent from Trenin’s essay was the mention of one single specific tangible thing that America might expect to get in return for this largess.
Interestingly, Trenin served most of his life in the Russian army, so thinking of how best to reward America isn’t exactly his forte. In fact, one might reasonably ask whether, if this is what the Russian army wants, it isn’t the very last thing McFaul should actually give Russia.
Trenin does mention some supposed gifts that Russia has already given McFaul’s mentor Barack Obama: increased U.S military transit through Russia towards Afghanistan, canceling a missile deal with Iran, not blocking sanctions against it, and not vetoing the use of force against Libya.
But Russia has already been richly rewarded for these actions. The USA canceled its planned missile shield in Eastern Europe and it refused to provide defensive weapons to Georgia. It turned its back on Russia’s nascent democracy movement and did nothing as Mikhail Khodorkovsky was railroaded back into Siberian prison (and thence to a secret location).
Since Trenin cannot name anything new America can expect to get, it’s clear he’s urging McFaul to make unilateral concessions. He apparently believes he will get them. He is relying on the absurd notion that so rewarded, the Russians will magically come up with better behavior on their own, rather than simply reaching for more.
And what is the real value to the USA of Russia’s prior “concessions”? Virtually none.
How can Trenin possibly see imposing pressure for democracy on tiny Libya as a win for the U.S. when the cost is shamelessly permitting dictatorship in vast Russia?
In what way has Iran become even remotely less dangerous to U.S. interests? Russia continues to pour nuclear technology into Iran and, if Iran gets a bomb, it will be because of Russia.
Afghanistan? Right after Osama bin Laden was assassinated Russia immediately invited the ruler of Pakistan to visit Moscow for the first time in three decades, thumbing its nose at American outrage over Pakistan’s obvious complicity in hiding the rogue terrorist.
I’ve already argued that McFaul is a terrible choice to lead America’s foreign policy towards Russia, so naturally, Obama is now giving him even more responsibility in this area, and the Russians are salivating at the prospect of what they may gain.
Obama is a dream come true for Putin — a U.S. president who is willing to look the other way as Putin drives the final nails into the coffin of Russian democracy and seizes power as “president for life.”
So now it is up to the Republican Party. At McFaul’s upcoming confirmation hearings, he must be challenged aggressively. Republicans should do all they can to block his appointment. It’s the only way of sending a clear message to Obama that he must reverse course on Russia. If they don’t do so, then they will share responsibility for allowing the rise of a neo-Soviet state in Russia, funded with oil windfalls and seething with contempt for American values.
The ghost of Ronald Reagan will haunt them the rest of their days.
I heard that the O Man is gonna nominate Putin as our ambassador to Russia…oh,wait! He already runs Russia!
Add this little nugget to a other boatloads of incompetent/purposeful anti-American moves by this administration and we can only conclude that everything obama has/is still doing is an abomination. Treasonous does not even begin to describe the present administration. Surely we have the wherewithall to stop this nonsense before it goes any further rather than reporting on it after the fact…why are we acting like victims?
Enough is enough…we have to bury this administration and all it’s anti-sovereignty garbage.
I wish John Bolton could take the job. He would cause the Russians some real heartache. But with Obama in the White House, we would have a better chance of seeing Hillary Clinton poll dancing at a strip club rather than having Obama actually putting a decent ambassador in Russia. Then again, who would actually want to see Hillary poll dancing at a strip club? Ewwwww. Oh well, in 2012, we’ll have a chance to fix that by throwing Obama out of office. Then maybe John Bolton will actually go to Russia, or, better yet, become Secretary of State.
JOhn Bolton for president…then watch the @$$holes squirm….
The Russian – US relationship has not progressed well since the Gorbachev – Reagan era. Since the collapse of the USSR, both have “lost Russia”, as she floundered through her attempts to throw off centuries of dictatorships, and pogroms, while the US abjectly failed to help a people who were driven to their knees (by their own rulers). General Marshall taught the world, following WWII, that when your enemy is prostrate, it is a unique historical time to really end hostilities. The US leader blew his opportunity, chased good looking women, as their leader got drunk, while millions of Russians suffered. Russia then evolved through 19th century US capitalism, as unbridled oligarchs stole its enormous natural resources. They bought a corrupt government not unlike Al Capone did in Chicago. The current result is a KBG cop, Putin, who plays rough. Russia is sliding back into dictatorship, where private property rights have no weight against the gun, and a phony judiciary. We have our own problems.
The way forward for Russia, is an equitable distribution of wealth, a stable division of power within its government and a peaceful integration with western societies. With H bombs, the old Russian way no longer works. Client wars with US interests, a throw back to the cold war, did not work, and will not work.
Obama, and Putin, must get real. Both have enough warheads to terminate all life on our common planet.
Russians, by and large, don’t want to be separated from the
West. Russia is encircled by Muslim lunatics & terrorists, and is infiltrated throughout by Muslim gangsters and butchers. They’re battling for the survival of an ancient, but wobbly, Christian culture. What they perceive is an America that is willing to throw Russia under the Muslim bus, especially after America underwrote Osama bin Laden’s Taliban attack on the Russians in Afghanistan. Russia would love to trust America, but America keeps taking the Muslim side in the on-going struggle, whether it’s the Taliban or Uzbekistan, Chechnya or Kosovo. Sooner or later, America must decide who it wants to marry, but as far as they can see, America keeps bringing flowers to the Muslim lady.
If Russia is so paranoid about the muslims surrounding them, why in the
world are they building Iran’s nuclear program? Iran will eventually be just
as big a threat to threat to Russia as they are to the west. Any nuclear
event Iran instigates will wind up right on Russia’s doorstep. Russia’s
actions are unbelievably stupid and suicidal. Why is Obama allowing this
to happen?
Also we did not support Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban against Russia
in the 80′s – we supported the MUJADEEN against the SOVIET UNION, our
mortal enemies in the Cold War (maybe you heard of it). It would be
idiotic for the Russians to be playing nuclear footsie with the Iranians
because of what happened on an old Cold War battlefield 25 years ago.
Also the Taliban did not come to power in Afghanistan until they overthrew
the Mujadeen leaders in the mid-nineties. It was only then that Bin Laden
returned from his long sabattical in Somalia and Sudan (remember Black Hawk Down?).
President Clinton’s refusal to deal with the storm clouds rising out
of the Taliban’s Afghanistan of the late 90′s is what lead to 9/11
(remember the Sudanese offered to turn Bin Laden over to us) not our
victory over the Soviets.
KDW: “If Russia is so paranoid about the muslims surrounding them, why in the
world are they building Iran’s nuclear program?”
Because they’re like cornered rats. We’ve pushed them into a corner with the Muslims. They’ve got nobody to buy their nuclear technology – except Muslims. They’ve got nobody to buy their combat planes – except Muslims. Nobody but Muslims can buy their awesome battlefield helicopters. Or their $5,000 Lada cars. They can always hold back key bits of their war machinery in case they have to come to blows with the Muslims, but they still need to sell something to survive. They’re clever, hard-working people but boxed in by the USA. Don’t act so surprised when they try to make whatever business deals they can with their looney neighbors. Wake up! Russians would love to change their alphabet and partner with the west. They don’t want to be fenced in by America to an eternal, grinding, grudge match with their Muslim neighbors.