generalspeaking

Filling The Vacuum

"I know that you have made a decision to run for president. That's a very responsible decision; to undertake such a mission for the fate of the Egyptian people. On my own part, and on behalf of the Russian people, I wish you success."
Russian President Vladimir Putin

"Putin and Al-Sisi have a lot in common ... and both share a negative view of the Brotherhood.
"Putin wants to have a foot in Egypt instead of an expected loss on the Syrian side. Egypt needs an international entrusted ally that would balance relations with America."
Abdullah El-Sinawi, political analyst, Cairo

Russia's indomitable leader who has moulded himself in the image of a Russian strongman as of old, resurrecting in the nostalgic minds of Russians the greatness that was theirs during the Soviet Union, has never seen an opportunity to upstage the United States that he wasn't eager to grasp. Whether it was to solemnly welcome Edward Snowden with his cache and cachet, or now Egypt's next president, once the formalities have met up with the de facto position, he is consolidating his position as he would imagine the international community now views him; a powerful world leader to reckon with.

It is Russia's time to shine on the world stage. Vladimir Putin hasn't yet modestly accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, but perhaps that time may yet come. Who, after all, persuaded the putative most powerful man on the planet through some mysterious legerdemain that the best course of action is not to bring in international troops to halt the maiming and slaughter in Syria, but soothing words acceptable to Bashar al-Assad that no one is accusing him of chemical warfare, but do surrender them.

Who was it who stepped into the nervously edgy consternation evinced by the West over the Islamic Republic of Iran's intransigent avowals of entitlement to nuclear production and eventually warheads to match their intercontinental ballistic missiles, to convince, yet again, the UN, the U.S., the EU and any other skeptics (inclusive of Canada which reserves the right to remain a skeptic) to approach the issue from an appealingly servile perspective to persuade Iran to just tone down the enrichment process, please and thank you very much.

And who is it who now has the world in the palm of his hands, oohing and ahhing over the sumptuous $51-billion presentation of Olympic sports in Sochi? Precisely. Setting aside the corruption, the stifling of journalists, the arrest and incarceration of his political opponents -- passing a blind eye to Mr. Putin's interference in Ukraine in a messy conflict he blames on American interference, and his support for the Syrian regime, the Iranian regime and ferociously Islamist designs as long as they don't impact on Russia -- he's turned out a magnificent chess player.

Israel has appealed to him for intercession, to persuade the Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas to be reasonable, and so has Saudi Arabia, in its concerns over a nuclear-armed Iran, in the wake of a newly disinterested, departing Washington, leaving the field completely open to Moscow's endearing devices of grasping at any opportunity to leverage its hegemonic interests. And why wouldn't the Kremlin respond as it did, resentful of a Washington elite that offered snubs when it would have been far more intelligent to wean Russia a little deeper into the democratic sphere?

On the other hand, the manoeuvring embarked upon by the Obama administration has pretty well led to the situation which now prevails; before it was only distrusted, and now its foreign policy is seen as having been debased, abandoning previous political colleagues on the international stage, gently ushering them into the welcoming arms of a political-social adversary which sturdily approves of America's increasingly self-imposed isolationism. Mr. Obama pledged to rescue the United States' reputation from the blemished one imposed upon it by his direct predecessor. This is his solution.

Russian and Egyptian ministers met in consultation to issue a joint statement where they condemned foreign interference in domestic affairs of any country, and iterated the pressing need for solutions to all existing problems and crises by peaceful measures exclusively, leading from broad all-inclusive dialogue, and as a coded message of rebuke to the United States, it doubtless hit its mark.

Labels: Capitulation, Egypt, Intervention, Iran, Middle East, Negotiations, Russia, Syria, United States

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, February 15, 2014