Posted on 03/29/2008 6:11:24 PM PDT by Ravnagora
BRUSSELS, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Russia's ambassador to NATO dismissed on Friday NATO's call for Russian President Vladimir Putin to avoid "unhelpful rhetoric" at next week's NATO summit.
In an interview with the Financial Times published on Friday, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he hoped the Russian leader would refrain from making anti-West comments.
"Let's try to avoid unhelpful rhetoric, like 'We will target missiles on nations A, B and C.' That is not only unhelpful, but it makes me remember a time when I was growing up when there was a Berlin Wall and an Iron Curtain," de Hoop Scheffer told the paper.
The call was branded groundless by Russian ambassador Dmitry Rogozin.
"I think he (de Hoop Scheffer) had no real grounds to say that," Rogozin told reporters on Friday.
"Which is more important in international relations -- aggressive policy or aggressive rhetoric?" he asked.
"Is Russia going to deploy any new military bases of its armed forces in Mexico or Canada; or is it negotiating on the accession of Iceland or Northern Ireland to the Warsaw Pact organization; or is Russia deploying its strategic missile defense in Mexico; or is Russia recognizing some parts of sovereign states, like Northern Ireland, Corsica, or the Basque area in Spain, irrespective of the fact that it's prohibited by international law?"
Russia is doing none of them, he said, in a veiled attack of Washington's military expansion and its policies on NATO enlargement and Kosovo.
The outspoken diplomat quipped that the NATO chief might have problems with Putin calling a spade a spade, he said.
"That will not change. He (Putin) will still call a spade a spade and we will come out with our open and frank views and descriptions on the situation in international security," he said.
"President Putin was elected by the Russian people and he is free to say whatever he wants to," said Rogozin.
Putin was invited to the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, for a NATO-Russia Council meeting. This will be the first time that the council is held at the level of heads of state.
Also, how could Russia interpret our little adventure in Serbia as anything but an enemy action. We were protecting no American interest and the official excuse of “genocide” has been shown to be total BS. They were merely defending themselves against the same thugs we’re now fighting in Iraq and Afganistan.
Your analysis, Bokababe, is brilliant.
America needs to reevaluate its policy with regards to Kosovo. No amount of oil will be worth the consequences of what this policy could potentially unleash.
And that’s an understatement.
Unfortunately, the republicans are continuing the same agenda.
And if McCain wins, it will only get worse.
And if Hillary or Obama win, it will STILL suck. All three are reading out of the same international playbook even if it kills them -- and us!
Not so sure about that:
March 29, 2008, 18:55
Ukrainians protest against joining NATO
Thousands of people in Ukraine’s southern republic of Crimea are protesting against the country's plans to join NATO. The demonstrators are also demanding that Ukraine's peacekeepers are withdrawn from Kosovo.
The protesters say that joining the alliance will be against the people's wishes and national interest, and could also harm Ukraine's relations with Russia.
The rally comes two days before the visit of George Bush to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
The country's plans to join NATO will be discussed at an alliance summit in Bucharest in early April.
I agree.
NATO certainly is.
Ukraine will make its own decision. If they don't join NATO it's their own decision to make.
But I suspect that Putin or his stooge Medvedev at some point in the future will pull some boneheaded stunt and make Ukraine see that joining NATO is a good idea. Anything to keep a Russia addicted to dictator ship on Russia's side of the border.
Although that scenario is possible, I don't think that is the case here. Ukraine has always been wavering re NATO & the Kosovo mission. The government's for NATO, the people mostly against and with a clear reason why.
Then a couple weeks ago, a Ukrainian peaacekeeper died in a confrontation in Mitrovica, Kosovo. Of course, NATO & the UN reflexively "blamed the Serbs", but the Ukrainians blamed NATO & the UN.
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