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| » Relations between U.S. and Russia feel chill as tension rises |
| Postuar mė datėn: 2008-01-30 03:24:40 nga admin2 :: Kategoria: English |
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By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON -- Growing friction between the United States and Russia over Iran is only part of an increasingly difficult relationship that many diplomats and experts consider to be in its worst shape since the end of the Cold War, and at risk of further deterioration.
Although U.S. officials are publicly playing down the rising tension, a series of conflicts has prompted some within the Bush administration to conclude that, for domestic and geopolitical reasons, Russia is now more comfortable with the United States as an enemy than as an ally.
The Putin government, flush with petrodollars and increasingly aggressive on foreign policy, has challenged the Bush administration on a wide range of issues in recent months. While U.S. officials badly need Russian help in the Middle East and elsewhere, Moscow has bucked Washington on Iran, Kosovo, missile defense, NATO expansion, arms treaties and governance in its own country.
The acrimonious rhetoric between the two countries is likely to get louder, and some foreign diplomats and analysts fear that in places such as Kosovo and Georgia the collision of interests could result in violence.
"The trajectory of the relationship has been steadily downward," said Michael McFaul, a Stanford University political-science professor and expert on post-Soviet countries. After peaking immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, "it's now the worst it's been in 20 years."
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On Iran, the Russians at a gathering in Berlin last week resisted U.S. efforts to impose more painful sanctions against Tehran, forcing the Bush administration to settle for much less than what it had been seeking. The meeting was dominated by wrangling between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a specialist on Russian and Soviet affairs. It "was not always all that easy," Germany's foreign minister said afterward, describing the heated sessions with diplomatic understatement.
Underlying the mounting friction is Russia's shift in recent years from a country that once strived for full integration with the West to one that seeks to serve as an independent power center that can check what it views as the excessive influence of the United States.
Bush administration officials say Russian leaders believe that the United States exploited their country's weak post-Cold War position in the early 1990s.
The Russian view is, "'We were weak, stabbed in the back, betrayed. But now we're back -- we're strong,'" said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"They seem to relish fighting with us and accusing us of various things," the official said. "They like having an enemy." In the view of many Russians, the U.S. posture in the world has changed for the worse over the years and now requires a different response.
"America now reminds me of a person who enters a bar with a gun in his hand and says, 'Look, if you're not tolerant enough, I'll shoot you on the spot,'" said Mikhail G. Delyagin, chairman of Moscow's Institute of Globalization Studies. "They perceive any sign of dissent as a manifestation of aggression against themselves."
Russian President Vladimir V. Putin laid down a tough line last February in Munich, Germany, when, without mentioning the United States by name, he complained of countries trying to expand their world power like the Nazis before World War II.
In public, top U.S. officials soft-pedal the conflicts with Russia, saying that they do not view Russia as an enemy and pointing out that the two countries are working well on such issues as counterterrorism and North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
"The recent talk about a new Cold War is hyperbolic nonsense," Rice insisted Wednesday in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "We don't define ourselves against Russia," Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of State for Europe, said in an interview. "We're not an enemy. We're not out to weaken them."
But friction has become clearly visible. Last month, Russia began shipping nuclear fuel for Iran's reactor at Bushehr, over U.S. objections And Russia and China have forced a delay and dilution of the new round of U.N. sanctions against Iran sought by Washington.
Russian analysts argue that the United States bears as much or more responsibility for strained relations. The two countries often have clashed because of flawed foreign policy on the part of the United States, they say.
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