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Kremlin Wants USA to Agree Rules of Game in Former Soviet Union - Source

Posted on: Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 06:00 CDT

Excerpt from report by Russian news agency RIA

Moscow, 23 August: Russia intends to introduce fundamental changes to its policy towards the post-Soviet region and these concern the USA and Europe even more than CIS states.

"The essence of the new direction in politics is not to do with restoring some kind of Russian influence that was apparently lost after the "orange revolutions". This never existed. What did exist was money going to waste and the theft of Russian gas. The aim is to make relations between Moscow and American and European structures in former Soviet republics civilized," a senior source in the Kremlin told RIA-Novosti.

The source said that dialogue about this is under way with CIS leaders and will most likely be continued at the CIS summit to be held in Kazan on 26 August as part of the city's millennium celebrations.

"Even if it takes years, we have the patience to explain to our CIS partners that Moscow does not intend to restore the Soviet empire," he said. "But Russia is not interested in a situation where it is in effect subsidizing the economies of a number of countries, providing them with fuel for a low price, while the people there continue to go hungry. It is precisely situations like these that lead to "orange revolutions", which in turn lead to few changes for the people, whilst new leaders come to power, at least some of whom are receiving a salary either directly or secretly from the Americans."

The Kremlin admits that it has made serious mistakes: in the 1990s it had no money or time, nor the political will to strengthen the commonwealth. The country had its own problems. But the situation has changed in recent years. The setting up a of number of serious international organizations both within the CIS and outside bear witness to this: the Eurasian Economic Union, the Organization of Central Asian Cooperation, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Single Economic Space and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

But nor have our opponents gone to sleep. There is GUUAM, for example, [loose alliance of Georgia, Ukraine, previously Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova], which was set up as a counterweight to the alliances involving Russia.

"Almost breathing its last after the departure of Uzbekistan, this organization lost one of the U's from its name, but is now returning to life thanks to the very same "orange revolutions", with their considerable sponsorship from across the ocean," the Kremlin representative told RIA-Novosti.

The source views the intention voiced by Georgia and Ukraine to create a Baltic-Black Sea-Caspian commonwealth of democracy as another attempt by the West to create a counterweight to Russian policy in the former Soviet Union.

The recent suggestion by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization that it is high time the USA set a date for the withdrawal of its military bases in Central Asia clearly made a strong impression on America. But it has been backed by little action other than Uzbekistan's decision to rid itself of US military presence, and that decision was only taken because the West put such strong pressure on [Uzbek] President [Islom] Karimov after the events in Andijon [brutal suppression of a protest in eastern Uzbekistan on 13 May].

The first ever large-scale Russian-Chinese military exercise is a more serious matter, the analysts say, but the main issue is ahead of us: talks with the West, first and foremost, with America. "There are practically no rules to the battle under way on the territory of the former Soviet Union. Russia wants to introduce some rules. And the rules of the game should be civilized," the Kremlin source said. [Passage to end omitted: general comment]

Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

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