Russian Hysteria: A Short History

Russian pundits are in a torrid tizzy over the perennial question: What happened to U.S.-Russian relations? What happened to our joint cooperation in the war on bearded men? When did everything start feeling like a worn-out page from a Tom Clancy novel? In short, when did it all go to hell in a hand basket?

First, it is no secret that for the United States, chilly relations with Russia has been the equivalent of manna from heaven. It gives American defense contractors extra teeth when barking for government subsidies for their latest death toys; it has a tendency to push the discordant European countries trembling into America's steely comfort zones; it diverts attention from America's glaring social problems. Last but not least, it gives James Bond a viable villain for yet another hit season.

But there is a point when this atmosphere of cheap, self-serving rhetoric grinds to a halt and crude concrete devices - such as a missile defense system on Russia's doorstep - take over.

How did we arrive at this hazardous juncture? Naturally, the Western media has played its own part by fertilizing the fields of fear with noxious amounts of horse manure.

Consider this week's Newsweek magazine, which carries a code-red article entitled, "Poisonous Relations: Europe needs to figure out a way to come together to fight back against Russian aggression."

So what heinous crimes did Russia commit this time? Hold onto your chair, this is spooky: "Russia banned Polish meat in 2005, claiming it was hygienic; it attempted to charge the German airline Lufthansa special fees for flying over Siberia in 2007... Moscow offered certain member states, like Germany, preferential energy deals..."

So there you have it, straight from the horse's mouth: Russia is accused of "aggression" because it has squabbles with its trading partners. Holy Holdings, Batman! Man the trenches and sound the alarms, the Russian MBAs are coming! But before we go totally ballistic, let's be honest: is there one capitalist country that is innocent of these same types of charges? Name one business school that teaches that business partners are always peaceful and scrupulous creatures. Name one country that is not a bit partial to its multinationals. And while we are at it, did anybody accuse the U.S. and Europe, for example, of "aggression" during their six-year "Banana War" - a bloodless yet fanatical feud in the roaring 90s that pitted U.S. banana multinationals against slippery European importers? This is just one of the hundreds of trade spats that surface each year between trading partners.

The problem, then, is not Russia's increasing economic muscle. The problem is that its increasing economic weight gives it more political punch on the international stage - much like the US and the EU. But let's face it: old Uncle Sam has no intention of sharing his moment in the limelight with any other actors.

So when did the proverbial pooh-pooh hit the fan in Russia-U.S. relations?

The exact date, in my opinion, was February 9, 2006, the day that former Russian President Vladimir Putin invited Hamas, the Palestinian political group - which America and Israel recognize as a terrorist organization - to Moscow for talks. Hamas, remember, had just won a landslide victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, and Moscow saw an opportunity to mediate on behalf of the two sides for peace (Before the delegation arrived in Moscow in March of that year, a top Russian official commented: "I don't think Hamas will have... a future if Hamas doesn't change" - the "change" being its refusal to acknowledge Israel's right to exist. This was the official Russian stance).

The U.S. response to Russia "reasserting itself" - especially in a volatile region long believed to be America's distant "back yard" - was swift, and can be best demonstrated chronologically:

March 5, 2006: the Council on Foreign Relations hatches a report entitled: "Rus­sia's Wrong Direction: What the United States Can and Should Do." The ‘independent' study warned that "U.S. policymakers should address themselves both to what happens inside Russia as well as to more traditional U.S. foreign policy concerns." The Hamas meeting ranked high.

March/April 2006: Foreign Affairs, the leading U.S. journal on geopolitics, published an article entitled, "The Rise of U.S. Nuclear Primacy," which argued that "It will probably soon be possible for the United States to destroy the long-range arsenals of Russia or China with a first strike." Russia must be thinking, ‘With friends like this, who needs Georgia?'

May 4, 2006: On the eve of the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg, U.S. Vice Pre­sident Dick Cheney lectured Russia at the Vilnius Conference, where he claimed that "opponents of reform are seeking to reverse the gains of the last decade."

February 3, 2007: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates ruffled Russia's feathers when he ranked it among some very iffy compnay: "We don't know what's going to develop in places like Russia and China, in North Korea, in Iran and elsewhere." Shortly later, plans to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe is announced.

February 10, 2007: Vladimir Putin rebukes the U.S. at a security summit in Munich for its "almost uncontained" use of military force around the world .

May 30, 2007: Warning that U.S. plans to install a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic could turn Europe into a "powder keg," Russia successfully tests a new intercontinental ballistic missile that can "overcome any potential missile defense systems."

Sept. 11, 2007: Russia tests the world's most powerful vacuum bomb, which it dubs "the father of all bombs," apparently in response to America's "mother of all bombs."

July 8, 2008: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signs missile defense deal with the Czech Republic for the construction of a radar station. Russia responds that it will be forced to respond "not in a diplomatic fashion, but with military resources."

July 21, 2008: Russia announces that combat aircraft could return to Cuba in a bid to counter U.S. plans to deploy its shield in Central Europe, Izvestia reports.

"While they are deploying the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, our strategic bombers will already be landing in Cuba," a Russian military spokesman said.

Flashback. October 1962: the Cuban Missile Crisis witnessed a tense standoff between the U.S. and the USSR when Soviet missiles were deployed in Cuba.

By Robert Bridge