EVIAN, France (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday Washington had forfeited its place at the heart of the world order and he called on Europe instead to work with Russia on a new security pact.
| Maybe they could call it the "Holy Alliance." |
Medvedev said the United States had taken unilateral steps -- such as its invasion of Iraq, plans for sitting a missile shield in eastern Europe and NATO expansion -- which smacked of a Cold War mentality and created new dividing lines. "A desire by the United States to consolidate its global domination led to it missing an historical chance ... to build a truly democratic world order," after the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, Medvedev said.
"The Warsaw Pact has not existed for almost 20 years. But unfortunately for us at least, the expansion of NATO is being carried out with particular fervor," he said at an international forum in the French resort of Evian. "Quite naturally, no matter what is being said, we regard these actions as directed against us. That all belongs to the past just as Sovietology does. Sovietology, like paranoia, is a very dangerous disease, and it is a pity that part of the U.S. administration still suffers from it."
| Three words spring to mind: "Mif Sov'etskogo ugroza." I spent 20 years reading about the "myth of the Soviet threat" every time I picked up a copy of Pravda. Yet it was the idea of the myth itself that was mythical, even though the Social Democracies of Europe sincerely wanted to believe the threat was non-existent. |
Medvedev's tough speech echoed a similar address in Munich last year by his predecessor Vladimir Putin, which became a cornerstone of Russia's foreign policy and prompted many Western policymakers to talk of a Cold War atmosphere. Many observers had predicted Medvedev, a former corporate lawyer who took over from Putin in May, would adopt a more conciliatory approach. But his speech demonstrated he shared his predecessor's stance on foreign policy.
| Of course he does. If he doesn't, Vlad will have him poisoned. |
| Acorn didn't fall far from the tree, did it ... |
|