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RUSSIA BARGAINS WAR SUPPORT FOR CASH
WHILE vowing to prevent war in Iraq, and warning of global instability and the dangers of regime-change, Russia is quietly pushing for a massive cash windfall that it could claim by bowing to Washingtonâs will in the Gulf. Igor Ivanov, the Russian foreign minister, joined his German and French counterparts yesterday in saying they will not allow a UN Security Council resolution that "authorises resorting to force" against Iraq. In an interview with a leading Russian newspaper, he had earlier reminded the United States of the bitter taste that regime-change can leave. But while Mr Ivanov warned Washington not to jeopardise the fight against terror or the authority of the UN by launching unilateral action against Iraq, one of his chief deputies worked to soothe US tempers â and, apparently, wring maximum political and financial capital from Russiaâs key bargaining position. A senior US diplomat warned publicly yesterday that "there could be costs attached" to a Russian veto in the UN. Moscow may see opportunities as well. In an interview published in Kommersant newspaper yesterday, Mr Ivanov warned of the perils of trying to "force democratic principles onto an entire people. "The Soviet Union had its own grim history of setting up âsuitableâ regimes, and we know where that led. Unfortunately such experiments carry a heavy price, most of all to the people one is experimenting upon." Moscowâs ignominious withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, after desperately trying to prop up its puppet-leader, must have been prominent in his mind. The chaos that engulfed the country led to the rise of Osama bin Laden and the Taleban. Mr Ivanovâs deputy foreign minister, Georgi Mamedov, however, met the US ambassador to Moscow to "discuss possible ways to bring closer the Russian and US positions in the Security Council on the Iraq question," an official statement said. Mr Mamedov emerged from the "urgent" talks with a list of what Moscow wants from Washington in return for its support, or at least its non-opposition, to war in Iraq. He told reporters that a key treaty reducing stockpiles of strategic nuclear weapons would be placed before the US and Russian legislatures "in the coming weeks", a move which Moscow favours as it cannot pay for the weaponsâ safe storage. Mr Mamedov, noting the presence of NASAâs Moscow representative at the meeting, also underlined Russiaâs desire for extra US funding for its impoverished space agency. The Russian space programme, once the prize of the Soviet Union, cannot afford to build the extra Soyuz rockets needed to supply the International Space Station while the space shuttle is grounded after the demise of the Columbia. "We are still discussing financing for our launches," he said, denouncing a US law that forbids extra funding for the space agency while Russia continues to help build a nuclear reactor in Iran, part of President George Bushâs "axis of evil". "There is no link here," Mr Mamedov said. "Our ties with Iran involve nothing that breaches our international commitments. Anyway, it is an absolutely different issue, and we cannot conjure up tens of millions of dollars to increase the number of Soyuz launches." He also said Washingtonâs recent inclusion of three Chechen rebel groups on its terrorist blacklist should be "only the first step". The foreign ministry said Mr Mamedov and the US Ambassador, Mr Alexander Vershbow, had discussed "more effective joint opposition of international terrorism, including that in the Caucasus". Moscow has been severely piqued by Western criticism of its brutal war in Chechnya, which the Kremlin claims is financed by al-Qaeda-linked radicals. Across the city, another senior Russian minister was staking a claim for US funds. The atomic energy minister, Alexander Rumyantsev told reporters he would sign an agreement next week to close three nuclear power plants with the capability to produce weapons-grade plutonium. Washington would fund the shut-down to the tune of "hundreds of millions of dollars", he said, adding that over $200 million more was needed to secure Russiaâs nuclear reactors against "terrorist acts". Meanwhile, the latest planeload of Russians flew back to the safety of Moscow from Baghdad yesterday. Many worked in Iraqâs oil industry, where Russian firms have huge contracts to exploit the countryâs reserves, the second largest in the world. Moscow is also owed $8 billion by Baghdad, and is now filling its coffers with oil export money earned on a world market driven skywards by the uncertainty over Iraq. Analysts here say Washington must guarantee the safety of Moscowâs interests in Iraq before Russia will agree to cash in its chips. It will not give them up cheaply. While Mr Ivanov was in London on Tuesday, voicing his opposition to a war to the BBC, President Vladmir Putin welcomed to the Kremlin the president and vice-president of British Petroleum. BP stunned the energy world last month by buying a 50 per cent stake in Russian oil firm TNK for close to £4 billion. Posted by: ISHMAIL 2003-03-06 |
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