Posted on July 8, 2008 - by Venik

Get Tougher with Russia?

British Conservatives are pushing for a tougher line against Russia in view of latter’s growing espionage efforts and new territorial claims. The Conservatives are apparently concerned with Russia’s $189 billion rearmament program and Russia’s claims on the piece of the Arctic (“Britain must get tougher with Russia, warn Conservatives”, by James Kirkup and Duncan Gardham, The Telegraph, July 8, 2008)

It is interesting that the UK is apparently not concerned with the EU’s defense budget of nearly $250 billion or with the US defense budget of almost half-a-trillion dollars. The NATO and three of its strongest allies – Japan, South Korea and Australia – have a combined defense budget of more than $1.1 trillion. For the past two decades, despite the promises made to Russia in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the NATO continued its expansion toward Russia’s borders.

Apparently the British Conservatives are under the impression that Russia is overreacting and spending too much money on its defense. In 2007 the UK presented the UN with a claim to more than 1 million square kilometers of the Antarctica (“Britain to claim more than 1m sq km of Antarctica,” by Owen Bowcott, The Guardian, October 17, 2007) This was an absurd claim not supported by any serious scientific evidence and in violation of the 1959 Antarctic treaty signed by the UK. Also in 2007 France registered a claim with the UN to thousands of square miles around New Caledonia, in the Pacific. And yet it is Russia’s legally- and scientifically-grounded claim to a part of the Arctic adjacent to the Russian mainland that is causing such concern in London.

The Brits are consistently failing to understand one simple truth about their relations with Russia: London is not in the same league as Moscow when it comes to international politics. The UK is a tiny island nation, a has-been empire that borrows its nuclear missiles from its older brother. In its relations with the UK, Kremlin is merely keeping up appearances. So Gordon Brown thinks that Russia spends too much money on defense. Who cares what Gordon Brown thinks? The UK fancies itself a “number two” in international politics, carefully following in Washington’s footsteps. If living in a fantasy world makes Brtis feel better, I say – let them. What’s the harm?

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