{"id":275,"date":"2007-04-16T09:24:15","date_gmt":"2007-04-16T14:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=275"},"modified":"2007-04-16T10:32:44","modified_gmt":"2007-04-16T15:32:44","slug":"want-to-play-a-great-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=275","title":{"rendered":"Want to Play a (Great) Game?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"Content-Language\" content=\"en-us\" \/> <meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=windows-1252\" \/><title>Somebody in Washington wants to<\/title>Somebody in Washington wants to play hardball with Russia.<\/p>\n<p>If the Russian Duma is to be believed, the US is fanning the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.france24.com\/france24Public\/en\/news\/world\/20070416-2nd-Day-of-Protests-In-Russia.html\"> flames of internal dissent<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 The <em>Moscow Times<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/stories\/2007\/04\/16\/011.html\">reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Duma deputies unanimously approved a resolution expressing concern over  \t&#8220;growing and unprecedented attempts&#8221; by the United States to interfere in  \tinternal issues.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Under the guise of helping to conduct free and fair elections for the State  \tDuma in December 2007 and of the president of the Russian Federation in  \tMarch 2008, U.S. taxpayers&#8217; money is being used to fund numerous training  \tcourses, surveys, seminars and other events that propagandize &#8230; and  \tdistort the situation,&#8221; the resolution said&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The Duma resolution, which mentions the U.S. report, also accuses U.S.  \tofficials of participating in events organized by &#8220;openly extremist forces&#8221;  \t&#8212; an apparent reference to the attendance of several U.S. officials at a  \tMoscow conference held by The Other Russia last year. Among The Other  \tRussia&#8217;s organizers is the unregistered National Bolshevik Party, which  \tprosecutors call extremist.<\/p>\n<p>The Duma also called on the president, the Cabinet and the Prosecutor  \tGeneral&#8217;s Office to boost enforcement of the 2006 law that bans NGOs from  \tparticipating in political activities and establishes strong bureaucratic  \tcontrol over their finances, particularly over foreign grants.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So, who is spoiling for a fight with Russia?<\/p>\n<p>In a March 22, 2007 <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em> Op-Ed,  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/printedition\/asection\/la-oe-simes22mar22,1,406188.story\">Dimitri K. Simes points a  finger<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[There is an] influential group of neoconservatives and liberal  \tinterventionists inside and outside the Bush administration [for whom]  \tcompromise is unacceptable. For them, foreign policy is a morality play; the  \tRussians are the bad guys and should be taught a lesson&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In terms of &#8220;liberal interventionists,&#8221; Simes doesn&#8217;t name names.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe  he has in mind <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/doc\/20050207\/kvh\">Katrina  vanden Heuvel<\/a>&#8211;publisher of <em>The Nation<\/em>&#8211;and her husband, NYU  Professor <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/doc\/20061225\/cohen\">Stephen F. Cohen<\/a>  who might identify themselves as decidedly <em>anti-Putin<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding the &#8220;neoconservatives,&#8221; I am even less sure if the label fits.<\/p>\n<p>As I noted in <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=262\">a recent  post<\/a>, some strident supporters of Israel&#8211;including House International  Relations Committee Chairman Tom Lantos&#8211;have recently &#8220;gone wobbly&#8221; on Russia.<\/p>\n<p>If Lantos is prepared to ease the way for the lifting of Jackson-Vanik trade  sanctions and help shepherd Russia into the WTO, others in Washington are not  yet on board.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mosnews.com\/money\/2007\/04\/10\/schwabrussia.shtml\">Mosnews<\/a>  has noted signs of a split in Washington:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>U.S. Trade Representatives Susan Schwab<\/strong> said that Moscow was  \tmaking only \u00e2\u20ac\u0153slow progress\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for entry into the 150-member world trade body.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We would like to see Russia a full fledged member of the World Trade  \tOrganization and hope that Russia will undertake the commitments and  \tresponsibilities, the obligations that come with being a WTO member,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she  \tsaid, quoted by the AFP&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Schwab also said the US Congress was not prepared to revoke Cold War-era  \tlegislation intended to pressure Soviet authorities over emigration  \trestrictions&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>As MosNews has reported, several U.S. officials including Secretary of  \tCommerce Carlos Gutierrez and Congressman Tom Lantos, have spoken in favor  \tof lifting the amendment as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Schwab, however, <strong>seems to have a different idea<\/strong>. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The question that I  \tget asked when it comes to Jackson-Vanik and permanent normal trade  \trelations with Russia is, is the WTO ready to let Russia in and the answer  \tis, \u00e2\u20ac\u2122not yet,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What is Schwab&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wisconsinagconnection.com\/story-national.php?Id=680&#038;yr=2007\"> beef with Russia<\/a>?\u00c2\u00a0 It may be more narrowly &#8220;commercial&#8221; than  geo-strategic.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, there are Russia hawks in Washington and <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=207\">Cheney is arguably the  ringleader<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 But it is not obvious that Right Zionists constitute the  core of his anti-Putin coalition precisely because Right Zionists might be  tempted to &#8220;go wobbly&#8221; on Russia in exchange for cooperation in containing Iran.<\/p>\n<p>But, as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/printedition\/asection\/la-oe-simes22mar22,1,406188.story\">Dimitri K. Simes points out<\/a>, there are Russia hawks in this administration.\u00c2\u00a0  Simes identifies one key figure: Dan Fried, assistant secretary of State for  European and Eurasian affairs.<\/p>\n<p>Consider, for example, his recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.state.gov\/p\/eur\/rls\/rm\/81790.htm\">Congressional testimony<\/a>  on US relations with Turkey:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On energy security, the United States has offered strong support to help  \trealize the Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan oil pipeline, working with Turkey, Georgia  \tand Azerbaijan and with companies to establish a public-private partnership  \tthat has resulted in one the most complex and successful pipeline projects  \tof all time. A companion natural gas pipeline, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum, a  \tpipeline, is about to begin delivering Azerbaijani natural gas to Georgia  \tand Turkey.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next decade, we hope a trans-Caspian gas pipeline from Kazakhstan  \tand even Turkmenistan will connect with this BTE pipeline. We have also just  \tlaunched trilateral discussions with Ankara and Baghdad on developing gas  \tproduction in northern Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>This so-called <strong>Southern Corridor<\/strong> can <strong>change Eurasia&#8217;s strategic  \tmap<\/strong> by offering Europe its best hope for large volumes of natural gas  \tsupplies that will <strong>allow diversification away from a deepening European  \treliance on Gazprom<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Daniel Fried makes one thing clear: the Great Game is alive and well.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps it is no accident, then, that one of the leading figures in the  recent <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/google_login.html?url=http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB117667608994070547.html?mod=googlenews_wsj\"> Russian Dissent<\/a> is a champion of the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.opinionjournal.com\/editorial\/feature.html?id=110006444\">Great  Game<\/a>,&#8221; chess master, <a href=\"http:\/\/users2.wsj.com\/lmda\/do\/checkLogin?mg=evo-wsj&#038;url=http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB117522235247454187-search.html?KEYWORDS=kasparov&#038;COLLECTION=wsjie\/6month\"> Garry Kasparov<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Somebody in Washington wants toSomebody in Washington wants to play hardball with Russia. If the Russian Duma is to be believed, the US is fanning the flames of internal dissent.\u00c2\u00a0 The Moscow Times reports: Duma deputies unanimously approved a resolution expressing concern over &#8220;growing and unprecedented attempts&#8221; by the United States to interfere in internal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}