Don’t be scared of the Russians

The big Russian bear just wants to be loved

10 November 2007

The Kremlin is full of paranoia, not aggression

‘We are not looking for a fight with the West,’ continued the official, who advises Mr Putin on relations with America and Europe. ‘We want to work with the West. But when we see the Americans putting their missiles and radar on our doorstep to tackle a hypothetical threat, then it is only natural to wonder what is really going on.’

Having watched the gradual encroachment of Nato and the EU into areas which, until recently, Moscow regarded as coming under its sphere of influence, Washington’s plans to locate its anti-missile missile system on Russia’s doorstep has only served to heighten the Kremlin’s suspicions.

The Russians point out, quite rightly, that if anyone is at risk from a nuclear-armed Iran, it is Russia, not the West, as the medium-range ballistic missiles the Iranians are known to have can easily hit Russian territory, nukes or no nukes.

Well, I point out, if that is the case, why is Russia helping the Iranians to build a nuclear reactor in the Gulf, and why has Moscow just signed a £50 million deal to supply Iran with air defence equipment?

‘Look, we want to work with the West, but when we see the West making threatening gestures towards us we have to defend our interests,’ replied my man at the Kremlin.

So our fears about the emergence of a new Cold War come down to a genuine concern in Moscow that the West still has designs on Mother Russia. Wars are often started as the result of calamitous misunderstandings. With so much money swishing around the Kremlin, we can only hope the Russians fear they have too much to lose, both financially and politically, by starting another one.

Con Coughlin is the Daily Telegraph’s executive foreign editor.

Previous page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

More articles from: Con Coughlin | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (1)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Post comment

Alex

November 19th, 2007 6:56am Report this comment

I think, that americans place this radar and missiles because they are not interested to see quet and friendly Europe. If EC and Russia help each other. Russia to Europe with energy and Europe to Russia with technologies and transport. Everybody will forget about USA, they will lose their influence. Look! They come to European outsiders and place their military facilities to protect Europe, but nobody in Europe was asking them or even was warried about danger from Iran. The main reason is to politicaly destabilize relations between EC and Russia, in this case USA have their role and keep control!

Post comment