NATO and Russia come to blows…again
It’s deja vu all over again. Russia and NATO come to blows in yet another spying row which has seen the alliance expel two Russian diplomats including the son of Moscow’s ambassador to the European Union. Always masters of fake indignation, the Russians are apopletic. For the full story see this link to the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/30/nato-expels-russian-diplomats
So, what’s the big picture here? The spying row is just another incident in an ever growing list of flashpoints. The big picture is that we are fated to conflict with Russia as long as it is dominated by an unapologetic ex-KGB clique which is fundamentally opposed to democratic principles and which sees the relationship between Russia and the West as a zero sum game. In that single respect, of course, Moscow has a clearer understanding of underlying realities than the multilaterilist festishists in the West who believe any and all problems can be resolved around the diplomatic table. Russia is an anti-democratic power which sees democratisation in its so called “near-abroad” as a national security threat. It is about time that the West showed a similar degree of resolve in the opposite direction.
