Russia is Battling America, Not the Arabs

Whosoever believes that Pravda stopped expressing Kremlin policies in the post-Soviet era ought to continue following the newspaper. Or any Russian newspaper, for that matter. It’s hardly shocking that Russian newspapers should continue to reflect the views of the Russian government – though the number of newspapers, once three, is now nearly 130.

The Russians have shifted their treatment of the Syrian crisis away from its true significance. The issue for them is not the daily death toll or the number of people arrested or detained, but what they can do to bargain with America. The non-Soviet, non-communist version of Russia has not forgotten that America has been frolicking in Eastern Europe as if swimming in a backyard pool – a region which, since the fall of Nazi Germany, had been a private pool for Russia’s enjoyment alone. And now this region has suddenly become a part of the West, its soldiers fighting alongside American soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere.

The polar bear has swallowed these insults without forgetting them, just as it had to stomach its sideline role in the Kuwait War* when Moscow was still in a state of transition. Not to mention how the Palestine card was snatched away from Russia the moment Abu `Ammar** set foot in Oslo. Soviet Moscow was everywhere in the Middle East, splashing around in Egypt and chasing America’s influence in the Lebanon War, advancing the policies of the Eastern Bloc. Then, it was one thing after another until nothing.

As far as Vladimur Putin (a former intelligence officer in East Germany) is concerned, what is happening in Syria is not a bloody tragedy but rather an extensive regional crisis, an international affair resembling the Cuban Missile Crisis, with America, Turkey, Europe and the Arabs all asking Moscow to relinquish its position in the Security Council. For this, Moscow would want real compensation: that Washington should retreat from the deployment of missiles in Eastern Europe, that Russia’s strategic neighbor Turkey should temper its haste to ally itself with America, and that Washington and Europe should relax their pressure upon Russia’s allies, Syria and Iran.

Perhaps the West has not yet realized that Russia wishes to return to the old manner of speaking, a coarse pre-1988 language of bartering and speaking openly about strategic interests. And Tartus*** is by no means the greatest of these interests. Russia knows it is losing in the rest of the Arab world. The countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council will continue to distance themselves from Russia. Nor will other states open the doors of economic cooperation; instead, there is a tacit agreement to boycott and punish Russia for its role on the Security Council. The Russians have not tried to soften their positions in response, nor have they attempted to explain the rationale behind them, as China has done.

The Russian position was a major item in yesterday’s talks between Prince Saud al-Faisal and Dr. [Ahmet] Davotoglu of Turkey. Each step toward the Security Council can be linked to Russia’s bookkeeping, replete with old and unbalanced accounts.

*Editor’s note: The Persian Gulf War

**Editor’s note: Yasser Arafat

***Editor’s note: a Syrian port city, home to a Russian naval base