Back to Lenin
11.09.2008 | Mart Laar | English news
There is a small village in Georgia, not far away from the city of Gori, that for centuries was called Akhalgori. After Georgia was occupied by Soviet Russia in 1921, some local activist decided to rename it Leningori. After the restoration of Georgian independence, the local people gave the village back its original name.
Peaceful life continued till Aug. 10 this year. When Georgian troops left South Ossetia, they were followed by Russian armor and soldiers. After the signing of the ceasefire, villagers hoped that the Russian army would leave and they could continue their normal life.
Unfortunately, this did not happen. The Russians declared Akhalgori to be part of the so called security or buffer zone, which was closed to Georgian authorities, thereby allowing the South Ossetian militia free reign to burn and loot Georgian villages. Most people had already escaped Akhalgori, and to those who remained, the Russian military commander gave two orders: First, take Russian passports or leave immediately, and second - the name of village from this moment on will again be Leningori.
So Russia is really returning back to its Leninist ways. In this context we can and must ask, what are Russia's next steps? The author of the bestselling book "The New Cold War" and one of the best experts on modern Russia, Edward Lucas has published his blog an "email from the policy-planning unit in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service HQ" to the Russian president and the prime minister. Lucas is given to such mystifications, and even as he declares that he himself is not author of this "email" and that it was send to him by a friend, it is easy to see Lucas' fingertips on it.
This makes it interesting to read. What, then, is OPK@SVR.RU reporting to VVP@GOV.RU
and DAM@KREMLIN.RU after a succesful operation in Georgia? It asks, where will Russia move next? "Where will the frontier of the Near Abroad be? The Atlantic? The English Channel? The Rhine? The Elbe? The Oder-Neisse? The Vistula?
If we rely on military force, it cannot be the Atlantic. If we act now, we shall be in Riga in hours; Merkel (Angela Mbeki) will say fierce things for public consumption, but will continue to build the pipeline, Sarkozy will negotiate a cease-fire between us and the Latvians, Mr. Obama will say that Russia must be taught a lesson, and the British public will ask where Latvia is. So far, so good. But then what? Logic suggests that we should take Estonia and Lithuania too. But Estonia has strong ties with Finland and Sweden. Estonia is not for them a 'far away country of which they know little,' and they might reckon our move to be a fundamental threat to their security. Victory could be delayed, and delay is dangerous. Even without the Americans, a British fleet in the Baltic, with overt support from Sweden, Finland and Poland, could deny us control of the sea and air, and enable some Estonian strongholds to hold out against us indefinitely."
So Option II is offered, which is targeted at Europe. "It will be largely a propaganda war, and we shall need to run several lines to prevent the issues becoming clear. There is a lot of ignorance and anti-Americanism, and we need to fuel both, the former by a steady stream of misinformation, the latter by trading on the Americans' ability to lose friends and antagonize people, and also by emphasizing their many defects." Europe must be divided, France and Germany offered special relationships with Russia and cut from Anglo-Saxon world. "Once we have Germany on board, we can digest the intervening countries gradually and quietly without the West noticing."
We can laugh at such mystifications, as it is funny to read C.S. Lewis' famous "The screwtape letters." But as in Lewis' book, there is lot of unpleasant truth to this Lucas satire. As Lewis - especially in "Screwtape proposes a toast" - warns the West on moral weakness and relativism which undermines its power, similar weakness can threaten the West now. It is so good to live a comfortable life and not worry about some countries so far away. Why can't they just live in peace with Russia, which is such an important country for Europe? Lenin noted ninety years ago that The West is so hungry for profits that they will sell us the rope to hang them with. Looking at Schreder and other like-minded politicians in the West, we can safely say that Putin is an excellent pupil of Lenin.
Source: The Baltic Times
