Posted on June 28, 2008 - by Venik

The Makings of a Successful Foreign Policy

I just finished reading Jim Hoagland’s “Enough Rope for Russia” in the Washington Post. From time to time the mouthpiece of Republican neocons publishes nonsense about Russia and this piece by Hoagland is a particularly entertaining example.

Hoagland mentions Russia’s intention to form a cartel of natural gas-exporting nations, similar to the OPEC. He also mentions oil prices and Russia’s growing financial reserves. Hoagland quotes various Russian government officials talking about a “new world order” in which America’s political and economic influences will be significantly limited.

Apparently, Kremlin is under the impression that American banking industry crisis causing the global economic slump and the NYMEX speculators driving oil prices through the roof is a possible sign that the US has too much bad influence on the world economy. What a crazy thought. Russians also don’t seem to like the US-led invasion of Iraq and the continuing expansion of the NATO. Apparently, someone told them that the Cold War was over. So, the evildoers in Moscow are scheming to bring about a multi-polar “new world order” not dominated by nutcases from Texas.

However, Hoagland thinks, Russia will not be able to achieve its wicked goals primarily because of these two reasons: 1) everybody loves being dominated by the US; and 2) Russia is not doing as well economically as they would like to believe in the Kremlin. Hoagland illustrates these two points with some impressive facts and his iron logic.

According to Hoagland, the “new world order” announced by Bush-father following the Desert Storm was such a runaway success that the international community can’t get enough of it. Furthermore, Russian economic reforms in the 1990s under the leadership of the former Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar “brought growth in Russia to 10 percent. Now it has fallen to about 7 percent under Putin and Medvedev.” And so goes the old story of a giant with feet of clay.

Gaidar’s famous and highly-acclaimed in the West “reforms” of Russia’s economy led to the 1998 default and the collapse of the ruble. While most of his compatriots didn’t have enough money to feed their families, Gaidar was getting fatter with every appearance on the state television. Just when the average Ivan didn’t believe things could become any worse, Gaidar brainstormed the situation and proved everyone wrong. Hoagland cites 10% Russian economy growth under Gaidar’s “reforms” and bemoans the 7% economic growth under Putin and Medvedev. One thing Hoagland forgets to mention is that actual 7% economic growth is better than 10% imaginary growth, as most Russians will tell you.

Hoagland thinks that the best way for the new US president to deal with the Russians is to pretend to take them seriously, while scheming behind their backs. Basically, the Washington Post’s foreign policy guru is saying: “do what you’ve been doing for the past fifteen years since the Soviet collapse, since it worked out so well for you”. Exactly what Americans and Europeans will be putting in their gas tanks and how much they will be paying for it is a question Hoagland rather not discuss at this time. Who needs oil and gas when you have anti-ballistic missiles in Poland?

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