Decision ‘08

The Russian Bear Is The Fool Of The Animal Kingdom

As there any decency to Russia’s foreign policy? Even a shred? Read along with me:

Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that Britain would not negotiate over British sailors and marines held hostage by Iran. In an interview with ITV News, Blair again called for the unconditional return of the 15 Royal Navy personnel who were seized by Iranian authorities last week.

Britain’s Sky News meanwhile said Iran had released another letter by captured sailor Faye Turney, this time calling for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq

“The important thing for us is to get them back safe and sound, but we can’t enter into some basis of bargaining,” Blair said. “What you have to do when you are engaged with people like the Iranian regime, you have to keep explaining to them, very patiently, what it is necessary to do and at the same time make them fully aware there are further measures that will be taken if they’re not prepared to be reasonable.

“What you can’t do is end up negotiating over hostages; end up saying there’s some quid pro quo or tit for tat; that’s not acceptable,” he said.

Britain took its case to free its 15 sailors and marines held by Iran to the United Nations on Thursday, asking the Security Council to support a statement that would “deplore” Tehran’s action and demand their immediate release.

But Security Council diplomats said the brief press statement circulated by Britain’s U.N. Mission is likely to face problems from Russia and others because it says the Britons were “operating in Iraqi waters”—a point that Iran contests.

What the fudge? Russia is going to argue against this in the Security Council?

I’ve got to tell you something, I despise the Russians (the leaders, mind you, particularly Putin) even more than I did during the Cold War - at least then it was an ideological battle - now it’s just knee-jerk anti-Westernism and economic blackmail…

4 Responses to “The Russian Bear Is The Fool Of The Animal Kingdom”

1 too many steves Says:
March 30th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Calm down Marc, reports I read say that the UN issued a statement expressing “grave concern” about Iran’s actions in this case. Next is a “stern warning”, followed by a “strong memo” and then we get to “deplore” their actions. That is if the crisis lasts long enough.
2 Tom Maguire Says:
March 30th, 2007 at 11:25 am
I agree in concept with your characterization of the current Russian leadership, and woul dlike very much to slap them a bit - one might wonder how, from a strategic perspective, Russia is better off allied with Iran and North Korea than with Germany, France, the UK, Japan, and the US.

That said, I’ll bet the maps of territorial waters in that region are hotly disputed and that Russia may have some controversial Black Sea claims, so maybe they figure they need to support an aggressive Iranian interpretation of territorial waters here to mainatin some other precedent nearby. But that is just a wild guess.
3 Fred Says:
March 30th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
The Wall Street Journal today had an interesting article by Garry Kasparov on Russia. Mark, he may dislike Putin even more than you do. I guess you can get a sense of its direction from its headline: “Putin’s Gangster State.”
4 Mark Says:
March 30th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Tom, as always, I bow to your greater wisdom…and Fred, I love Kasparov…I may just have to blog that one in a minute…