Washington Post - 09.18.2008

Washington Post

Secretary Rice Sharply Criticizes Russia's Recent Actions

By William Branigin

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stepped up U.S. criticism of Russia today, saying its invasion of neighboring Georgia last month failed to achieve Moscow's objectives and has put Russia on a path to "self-imposed isolation and international irrelevance."

In a speech this afternoon, Rice said the United States and Europe must stand up to what she described as Russia's bullying behavior, and she railed against "anachronistic Russian displays of military power" in Latin America. She referred to the arrival of two Russian Tupolev Tu-160 "Blackjack" strategic bombers in Venezuela last week for training flights at the invitation of Venezuela's anti-American president, Hugo Chavez.

But Rice said the United States will not let differences with the Russian government "obstruct a deepening relationship between the American and Russian people" and will continue to "support all Russians who want a future of liberty for their great nation."

She rejected the idea that the United States and Russia are now engaged in a new Cold War, saying emphatically, "No, we are not." And she sought to explain how Russia has evolved since the 1990s by noting that after the fall of the Soviet Union, many Russians "experienced a sense of dishonor and dislocation that we in the West did not fully appreciate."

But "an acute sense of shame" over Russia's diminished status in the '90s "does not excuse Russian behavior" today, Rice said.

"What has become clear is that the legitimate goal of rebuilding the Russian state has taken a dark turn," she said, citing a rollback of personal freedoms, pervasive corruption and a "paranoid, aggressive impulse" to view neighboring new democracies as threats.

Rice vowed that the United States and Europe "will resist any Russian attempt to consign sovereign nations and free peoples to some archaic 'sphere of influence' " and "will not allow Russia to wield a veto over the future of our Euro-Atlantic community."

The remarks on U.S.-Russia relations to a gathering of the German Marshall Fund at a Washington Hotel represented an intensification of the criticism that Washington has leveled at Russia since early August, when Russian troops went into Georgia in what Moscow said was a response to Georgian attacks on Russian-backed rebels in the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Georgia charged that the Russian action amounted to an invasion that was aimed at toppling the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili.

The United States and European allies denounced Russia's move as disproportionate and said its assault went far beyond anything needed to protect Russian peacekeeping troops in South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia. Russia subsequently announced its official recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, a move that so far has been joined only by the leftist government of Nicaragua and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which holds power in the Gaza Strip.

According to Rice, Russia's actions "fit into a worsening pattern of behavior over several years." She mentioned, among other grievances, Russia's "intimidation" of neighboring states, its use of its oil and gas resources as "a political weapon," its arms sales to "states and groups that threaten international security" and its "persecution -- and worse -- of Russian journalists, dissidents and others."

"The picture emerging from this pattern of behavior is that of a Russia increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad," Rice said.

She acknowledged that Georgia's leaders "could have responded better to the events last month in South Ossetia," adding that "it benefits no one to pretend otherwise." She said, "We warned our Georgian friends that Russia was baiting them and that taking this bait would only play into Moscow's hands."

But Russian leaders used Georgia's military action in South Ossetia "as a pretext to launch what, by all appearances, was a premeditated invasion of its independent neighbor" after having "laid the groundwork for this scenario months ago," Rice said.

Russia's invasion of Georgia has failed to achieve any "enduring strategic objective," she said. The U.S. goal now "is to make it clear to Russia's leaders that their choices are putting Russia on a one-way path to self-imposed isolation and international irrelevance," she added. She omitted a statement in her prepared remarks that Russian leaders "will not accomplish their primary war aim of removing Georgia's government."

"The United States and Europe must stand up to this kind of behavior, and all who champion it," Rice said. "For our sake -- and for the sake of Russia's people, who deserve a better relationship with the rest of the world -- the United States and Europe must not allow Russia's aggression to achieve any benefit. Not in Georgia -- not anywhere."

She mocked the scant international support that Russia has received, saying, "A pat on the back from [Nicaraguan President] Daniel Ortega and Hamas is hardly a diplomatic triumph." And she dismissed the impact of dispatching "a few aging Blackjack bombers" to "one of Latin America's few autocracies."

Largely as a result of its actions in Georgia, "Russia's international standing is worse than at any time since 1991," Rice said. "And the cost of this self-inflicted isolation has been steep." Among other consequences, she said, "Russia's leaders are imposing pain on their nation's economy."

In a Senate hearing yesterday, William J. Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, said Russian financial markets have lost nearly a third of their value, at least in part because of the situation in Georgia. He said the Russian ruble has depreciated nearly 10 percent since the invasion and that "capital is fleeing Russia, with $7 billion leaving on Aug. 8 alone."

Burns told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "Russia and the Russian people are paying a considerable price for their country's disproportionate military action."

In her speech today, Rice vowed that the United States nevertheless "will continue to sponsor Russian students and teachers, judges and journalists, labor leaders and democratic reformers who want to visit America." She promised ongoing U.S. backing for "Russia's fight against HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis" and pledged that "we will continue to support all Russians who want a future of liberty for their great nation."