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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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 Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 5:48 am Post subject: A radioactive relationship - makes you sick |
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Well, it makes me sick to think what the Russians did to that poor bugger. Now Britain has expelled 4 Russian diplomats - out of frustration it seems.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/rodric_braithwaite/2007/07/radioactive_russia.html
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A radioactive relationship
Britain's expulsion of Russian diplomats is a blunt instrument that shows how few options it has after the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.
The row between Britain and Russia over the murder in London last autumn of Alexander Litvinenko has coincided with a wider deterioration in the east-west relationship. Emotions are bubbling, the temperature is rising, and some people are already talking about a return to the Cold War.
Fifteen years ago, Russia was flat on its back. We were giving food aid to keep the Russians from starving. Now they are back on the block, walking tall, and expecting people to listen to them again. It is an understandable reaction, though from time to time a bullying tone creeps into their rhetoric.
Our own rhetoric is misjudged too. We accuse the Russians of playing politics with energy and pipelines, as if the Americans had never prevented Western oil companies from building pipelines through Iran. We deplore President Putin's moratorium on the agreement on conventional weapons in Europe (although the West has not ratified it), as though the Americans had not first denounced the Anti-Ballistic Missile Agreement. We deplore the Russian refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the alleged perpetrator of the crime, even though their constitution does not permit it. At the same time we tell them that we cannot extradite Boris Berezovsky, the former Russian businessman now living in London, because our courts won't allow it. The Russians call all that double standards. They have a point.
But the British government was in a real difficulty. Litvinenko was murdered with a radioactive substance, polonium, which is - to put it mildly - not available in your local drug store. In fact only a substantial, and probably a governmental, organization would be capable of producing it. The people who brought it to London smeared it all over the town. The British government was bound to do whatever it could to deter the perpetrators from ever doing anything like that again.
In a better world, the British and Russian governments would sort the matter out together. In the world we actually live in, the British government has resorted to one of the bluntest instruments of diplomacy - the expulsion of Russian diplomats - for want of anything better. The Russians will presumably retaliate. David Milliband says he does not want to damage the broader relationship: we and the Russians have too many interests in common. He is right. But there will be storms ahead for some months before we all get back to business as usual, as we always do.
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cbclark4
Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Location: Masan
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| Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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| They have a point. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 7:18 pm Post subject: |
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I feel a bit disappointed with the Germans.
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Europeans lukewarm as Britain tries to rally support in row with Russia
� German officials suggest UK has overreacted
� Only France offers strong support over extradition
The furious diplomatic row between Britain and Russia spilled into Europe yesterday as Britain looked for solidarity from its EU partners and Russia warned them not to get involved.
Britain failed to win the immediate, concerted response it was seeking. The Foreign Office had wanted a quick statement from the Portuguese, who hold the EU presidency, that would express a united European position denouncing Moscow for its lack of cooperation over the Litvinenko murder inquiry. But late yesterday the Portuguese prime minister, Jose Socrates, had been unable to find a consensus among his fellow leaders.
A statement may come today, but the delay may have weakened its impact.
Meanwhile, the Portuguese foreign minister, Luis Amado, repeatedly emphasised that the matter was "a bilateral issue" between Britain and Russia.
The French offered particularly vocal support, but German foreign ministry officials reportedly believed Britain had overreacted by expelling four diplomats. Several other European leaders were waiting for the Russian response before committing themselves. |
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2128844,00.html |
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