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FT: Cheney remarks spark talk of ânew cold warâ
Russian newspapers looked back six decades on Friday as they reacted with alarm and indignation to Dick Cheneyâs rebuke of Russia in Vilnius, some warning it marked the dawn of a new cold war.Russiaâs state-owned Channel One TV news on Thursday night ignored the words of the US vice-president. But most Moscow newspapers â government-controlled and independent â carried it on their front pages on Friday. They presented it variously as carrying echoes of the speech in Fulton, Missouri, in 1946 when Sir Winston Churchill warned of an âIron Curtainâ descending across Europe, or the 1945 Yalta conference where Europeâs post-war map was drawn up. Some suggested Mr Cheneyâs remarks would drive Russia into the arms of China. Many highlighted the fact that Mr Cheneyâs speech was delivered in Lithuania to the Community of Democratic Choice, the nine-country group of former Soviet republics and satellites set up by presidents Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia and Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine. hey said it marked a potentially fatal split in the Commonwealth of Independent States, the body grouping 12 former Soviet republics founded in the USSRâs dying days. Kommersant, the business daily, was most strident, headlining its coverage: âEnemy at the Gate: Dick Cheney made almost a Fulton speech in Vilniusâ. The paper, recently sold by exiled Russian âoligarchâ Boris Berezovsky to a business partner and usually considered liberal and anti-Kremlin, warned that Mr Cheneyâs words showed âthe cold war has restarted, only now the front line has shiftedâ. Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russiaâs best-selling daily and seen as pro-Kremlin, drew comparisons with the Yalta conference. It published a map highlighting the countries that met in Vilnius, with the sub-heading: âAsia has stayed with Moscow, but former socialist Europe has gone over to the American side.â The new pro-democracy group had formed a âpowerful cordon sanitaire along our bordersâ. âWhat is Russia to do?â the paper asked. âEvidently it needs to strengthen links with Belarus and central Asia. And get friendly with China, to counterbalance this western might.â Vremya Novostei, a popular daily, said the new pro-democracy community was being created by the American leadership ânot only to be an alternative to the CIS, but its grave-diggerâ. Trud, controlled by the media arm of Gazprom, the natural gas giant, said a new bloc had formed âthe commonwealth of the disgruntled with Russiaâ. Official reactions were more measured, but no less piqued. Dmitry Peskov, deputy Kremlin spokesman, said the presidential administration viewed Mr Cheneyâs words with âincomprehensionâ â particularly his warning over Russia using its energy might to âblackmailâ its neighbours. âWe canât agree with a lot of his speech,â Mr Peskov said. âWe canât agree that Russian companies are intimidating people, intimidating neighbouring countries, which need oil and gas for the development of their democracies and their economy. âRussia and Russian companies for many decades, including during the cold war, were reliable suppliers of energy resources to Europe. And we remain reliable suppliers,â Mr Peskov added. He said Mr Cheneyâs speech made no mention of the âsuccesses that Russia has achieved in the area of democracy, in the area of freedom of religion. Fifteen years ago, no one in Europe could have imagined that we would follow such a path.â âIf weâre talking about some kind of change of approach, this should be officially communicated, and not by means of a speech at a conference,â he said. Posted by: 3dc 2006-05-05 |
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