Archive for the ‘NATO’ Category

Russia-Europe: The dangers of a “reset”

Posted Friday, February 19, 2010 by Anders Hjemdahl

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By Françoise Thom

What strikes a historian when looking at the relationship between Russia and Europe is the unchanging illusions Russia produces in the imagination of Westerners, and Russia’s ability to dictate the conceptual frameworks within which it wants to be interpreted –and misunderstood– abroad.

This explains another mystery in the relationship between Russians and Europeans: the astonishing imperviousness of the Western partners to experience.
The successive setbacks suffered by businessmen in Russia, the snubs regularly inflicted on European statesmen, the murders, the insults to diplomats, the abusive nationalizations, the broken commitments, the violations of international law, all are instantly forgotten.
No sooner had Russia launched a war of conquest allowing it to occupy 20 percent of the territory of a neighboring state, than the United States spoke of a “reset”; that is to say, of wiping off the slate (and thus erasing a valuable experience from which the lessons should have been drawn), while France is eagerly offering Russia the means for its next war of aggression against neighboring states by selling it Mistral helicopter carriers.

Rarely has the actual misunderstanding of Russia been as great as it is now, and as fraught with disastrous consequences for Europe.

Read the whole article in Eesti Elu (in English) here and in French in Géopolitique de L’Europe here.

Posted in Estonia, Finland, Geopolitics, Latvia, Lithuania, NATO, Russia, Security, Sweden, United States | 1 Comment »

Denmark caves in to Russian pressure over Nordstream

Posted Tuesday, October 20, 2009 by Anders Hjemdahl

The city of Viborg in a painting by Mikael S. Erassi in 1854. The city, founded by Swedish marshal Torkel Knutsson in 1293 close to the historical eastern border of Sweden, Systerbäck, Viborg was for more than six centuries one of Sweden/Finlands most important cities. Illegaly occupied by the Soviet Union/Russia since 1944 and renamed "Vyborg", the city is according to current official Russian sources "an ancient Russian city". To see the city and its architecture as it was before the destruction and decay of the Russian occupation, please visit the University of Tammerfors virtual Viborg project by cklicking on the picture.

The city of Viborg in a painting by Mikael S. Erassi in 1854. The city, founded by Swedish marshal Torkel Knutsson in 1293 close to the historical eastern border of Sweden, Systerbäck, Viborg was for more than six centuries one of Sweden/Finlands most important cities. Illegaly occupied by the Soviet Union/Russia since 1944 and renamed "Vyborg", the city is according to current official Russian sources "an ancient Russian city". To see the city and its architecture as it was before the destruction and decay of the Russian occupation, please visit the University of Tammerfors virtual Viborg project by cklicking on the picture.

After several months of being subjected to pressure from the Russian regime, the Danish government has finally reached a decision to allow the controversial Russian gas pipeline Nordstream to be constructed in Danish territorial waters.

The largest Danish energy company, Dong, has also reached a new decision to double the volume of gas purchased in a recently passed agreement with Russian state-controlled Gazprom to two billion cubic meters annually.

The Nordstream pipeline, rather than using the much cheaper and easier overland route, is planned to be constructed from Björkö outside Viborg in the Russian-occupied zone of Finland, to Greifswald in Germany along environmentally sensitive Baltic Sea floor, bypassing the pipeline system which is currently used for bringing Russian gas exports to the West.

The current pipeline system reaching Europe from Russia was constructed by the Soviet Union with the objective of making the West dependent on Soviet energy. Today, inconveniently for the current Russian regime, this pipeline system now passes through countries which since have regained their independence, making it hard for the Russian state to indiscriminately use the “energy weapon” by turning off supplies to troublesome neighboring countries without also affecting supplies to Western Europe in the process.

The Nordstream pipeline is designed to allow the Russian regime to bypass these troublesome countries, giving it a free hand in applying political pressure, not only on the states in Russia’s self-declared “zone of interest” covering neighboring states Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus and the Ukraine, but also on the West, by even further increasing the already significant Western European dependancy on Russian energy.

The pipeline also provides an excuse to project Russian military presence throughout the Baltic Sea.

The Nord Stream project has been explicitly and consistently described by Russian officials, including Vladimir Putin, as a military-political project by the Putin, and the project forms a key part of Russian foreign policy and military planning.

In response to the controversial purpose and nature of the Nord Stream pipeline project, the Russian plans has been met by fierce opposition in neighboring countries.

The Russian response has been to stifle criticism and speed up the legislative process in countries along the projected route by buying up political clout, including employment by Nordstream/Gazprom of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (head of the shareholder’s committee) former Prime Minister of Finland Paavo Lipponen (consultant) and many others, as well as the intensive use of PR firms and lobbyists.

The Managing Director of Nord Stream AG, Mathias Warnig, is a former DDR Stasi agent, and the German subsidiary of Gazprom, Gazprom Germania, has also been heavily critized for being dominated by former Stasi agents.

Robert Larsson’s 362-page study “Russia’s Energy Policy: Security Dimensions and Russia’s Reliability as an Energy Supplier” (2006) concluded:

“From Europe’s perspective, Russia is moving in the wrong direction. Russia has largely ignored criticism, and has been unwilling to change its behaviour. Dependence on Russian energy would not be a problem if Russia played by the same rules as other energy players or European states. In conclusion, the core problem is the combination of Russia’s perception, intentions, capabilities and track record along with lack of real stability, a high degree of unpredictability and a development away from democracy, rule of law and market norms.”


Download the full 2007 FOI (Swedish Defense Research agency) report “Nord Stream, Sweden and Baltic Sea Security” by Robert A. Larsson here.

Posted in Estonia, Finland, Geopolitics, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, NATO, Russia, Security, Sweden | 2 Comments »

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and Munich Agreement Not Equivalent Then or Now

Posted Thursday, September 3, 2009 by Anders Hjemdahl

Polish officers, civil servants and other "enemies of the people", arrested by the Soviet army in the "liberated" Soviet-occupied zone of eastern Poland, September 1939

Polish officers, civil servants and other "enemies of the people", arrested by the Soviet army in the "liberated" Soviet-occupied zone of eastern Poland, September 1939

By Paul Goble, New York, September 2, 2009

Efforts by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials and commentators to justify the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and Stalin’s ill-fated alliance with Hitler because of what British and French leaders had done in Munich highlight a dangerous trend in Russian thinking, according to a Moscow commentator.

Not only was the mendacity of the two actions fundamentally different – the British and French acted shamefully as part of an effort to maintain peace while Stalin acted shamefully to cover his seizure of the territory of neighboring countries, but the lessons the two have learned, Leonid Radzikhovsky says underscore the difference.

In an article in yesterday’s Yezhednevny Zhurnal, the Moscow commentator says that there is now question that both Western Europe and the Soviet Union “conducted themselves in a mendacious fashion in the 1930s” in their dealings with Hitler. But “there is mendacity and mendacity,” both at the time of action and in the lessons those who engage in it ultimately learn.

It is certainly true, he writes, that “Europe handed over Czechoslovakia to Hitler.” But “European politicians did not conclude secret deals and did not seize pieces of foreign territory.” And however cynical their actions, their goal was “an idiotic hope” of keeping the peace, something those who had experienced the first world war felt was essential.

In any case, Radzikhovsky suggests, “the real motives of the USSR [in concluding the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocols] were different.” They were “the simple, classical, ‘healthy imperialist’ motives – a secret protocol and the seizure of the territories of others.”

Encouraged by their leaders, Russians still are unwilling to acknowledge that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact opened the way to war and that it was an imperialist act not only by Berlin but by Moscow. And still worse, they have been encouraged by their leaders to view the cynical politics of force that the Europeans have rejected as still the proper order of the day.

Read the full commentary on Radzikhovsky’s article by longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia, Mr. Paul Goble, at his blog Window On Euarasia, here.

Posted in Geopolitics, NATO, Russia, Security | 5 Comments »

Reset button not needed for the Baltics

Posted Sunday, May 17, 2009 by Anders Hjemdahl

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By Anders Hjemdahl

WASHINGTON, DC  The JBANC (Joint Baltic American National Committe) 2009 congress took place in Washington, DC on May 15-16, gathering representatives from many levels of the goverments of Estonia, Latvia, Lithaunia and the United States, as well as diplomats, members of the diaspora, political commentators, historians, writers, journalists and former congressmen and U.S. government officials. The annual JBANC congress coincides with several related activities around Washington, including embassy events, hearings in the U.S Capitol, seminars, gala dinners, fundraisers, informal meetings and cultural events.  

The guest of honor of this year’s highly successful and well attended international congress was the President of Latvia, Mr.Valdis Zatlers, who delivered a highly appreciated speech centered on the importance of Latvia’s membership of NATO and friendship with the United States, transatlantic solidarity, the need for a united and distinct response to Russian belligerence, and of the need to defend the open society, democracy and free markets in the face of economic crisis.

The Friday, May 15 programme started with a briefing on cyber security at the US Capitol, featuring Dr. Stephen Blank of the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, Deron McElroy, House Committe on Homeland Security, and Paul Joyal of National Strategies, Inc., and was followed by a seminar at the Heritage Foundation themed on Information, New Media and the dissection of the legacy of Communism, presented by Dr. Lee Edwards of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

The Saturday, May 16 congress was an all-day event, with the major themes being

- Regional Geopolitics, Current and Future Security Threats

(Featuring Robert Norrick of the Monterrey Institute, Janusz Bugajski of CSIS, and Harri Tiido of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) 

- Ensuring Stability: Strategic Solutions and Regional Partnerships

(Featuring Julianne Smith of the U.S. Department of Defence, Andres Teikmanis, State Secretary of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vladimir Socor of the Eurasia Daily Monitor, the Jamestown Foundation, and Nicholas Kralev of The Washington Times)

- Policies of the new U.S. Administration and Congress: Baltic – U.S. Relations

(Featuring Alan Melzer, Deputy Director, Office of Nordic and Baltic Affairs, U.S. State Department, Vytautas Naudazas of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry and Ben Smith of Politico

- Diaspora Relations and Citizen Diplomacy – Views Across the Atlantic

(Featuring Aho Rebas, Office of the Minister for Population and Ethnic Affairs, Estonia, Mendy Nitsch, International Affairs, Office of the Secretary of State, Maryland, Andrea Strano, Regional Public Diplomacy Desk Officer EUR, State Department)

The discussions centered on the security situation of the Baltic republics in the wake of the lack of European Union and NATO response to the Russian invasion of Georgia, focusing on energy security, the validity of NATO Article 5 and the military security of the Baltic states, and of cyber security.

The afternoon discussions were dominated by an in-depth discussion on the need for securing the energy markets in the Baltics in relation to Russia’s use of energy for coercion and intimidation purposes, with initatives ranging from the construction of a local nuclear power plant, energy grid connections to Sweden, Finland and Poland, and the urgent need for creation of a common energy market for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The desirability of Swedish and Finnish NATO memberships were discussed repeatedly, with Julianne Smith of the U.S. Department of Defense stating that “any application of Sweden and Finland to join NATO would be welcomed with open arms”. 

Other high-interest issues which were brought up by many speakers and members of the audience were the continued validity of NATO Article 5, the need for extended NATO infrastructure and rapid reaction capability in the Baltic states, and the desirability of the stationing of foreign NATO “tripwire” troops in the Baltics as a stabilizing deterrent to Russian aggression and provocation.

An underlying topic which dominated many aspects of discussion were the importance of the formulation of new, common strategies of the European Union, NATO, and the new U.S. administration in dealing with an increasingly belligerent, aggressive and authoritarian Russia. Notable speakers on this subject were Vladimir Socor of the Eurasian Daily Monitor of the Jamestown Foundation, Janusz Bugajski of the Center for Strategic and Intertational Studies (CSIS), and Hari Tiido of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As a closing statement to the security-related discussions, Mr. Vytautas Nauduzas, Ambassador-at-large of Lithuania, invited U.S. President Obama to Lithaunia for the July 6 celebrations on the President’s way to Moscow. ” – A reset button is not needed with the Baltics”, stated the Ambassador.

Posted in Estonia, Finland, Geopolitics, Latvia, Lithuania, NATO, Russia, Security, Sweden, United States | No Comments »