Pat Dollard

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Ian Herald, International Leftist, I Meibune:

MOSCOW: Here is one measure of the aggressive shift in Russian foreign policy in recent days: Dmitri Rogozin, Russia’s representative to NATO, a finger-wagging nationalist who once hung Stalin’s portrait in his office, is not sounding so extreme any more.

“There are two dates that have changed the world in recent years: Sept. 11, 2001, and Aug. 8, 2008,” Rogozin said in an interview, explaining the ramifications of the conflict that erupted in Georgia nearly three weeks ago. “They are basically identical in terms of significance.”

“Sept. 11 motivated the United States to behave really differently in the world,” he said. “That is to say, Americans realized that even in their homes, they could not feel safe. They had to protect their interests, outside the boundaries of the U.S. For Russia, it is the same thing. We were sitting in our homes, the national discussion was internal. Now this Georgian attack is perceived as aggression, and made us realize that we cannot stay home. We have to go outside our homes to protect ourselves on new frontiers.”

Only a few months ago, the blustery Rogozin, 44, was regarded even in the Kremlin as more performance artist than diplomat. Established officials sometimes rolled their eyes when he was mentioned, as if to acknowledge that Vladimir Putin had dispatched him to NATO to do a little trash talking to rattle the West.

After arriving in Brussels early this year, Rogozin quickly scorned what he called the “blah, blah, blah” diplomatic niceties and pounded away at his theme: after years of affronts, Russia had had enough.

Its thrust into Georgia made that apparent, as did its decision Tuesday to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the breakaway enclaves that spurred the crisis. Now the rising stature of Rogozin, who called NATO criticism of Russia’s military action “bigoted and indecent,” is underscoring Russia’s sharp new tone – one adopted by both President Dmitri Medvedev and his mentor, Putin.

Rogozin remains a provocative figure in Moscow, known for once spearheading a political party that espoused anti-immigrant appeals described by some opponents as racist.

After the conflict broke out, NATO said there would be no “business as usual” in relations with Russia, and Russia in turn suspended some military cooperation. The Kremlin refrained from breaking all ties, saying it would continue to provide assistance in Afghanistan. Still, Medvedev talked tough.

“We do not need illusions of partnership,” Medvedev said Monday in a nationally televised appearance with Rogozin. “When we are being surrounded by bases on all sides, and a growing number of states are being drawn into the North Atlantic bloc, and we are being told ‘Don’t worry, everything is all right,’ naturally we do not like it.”

“If they essentially wreck this cooperation, it is nothing horrible for us,” he said. “We are prepared to accept any decision, including the termination of relations as a whole.”

For his part, Putin, who is now prime minister, declared Monday that Russia was pulling out of some agreements intended to smooth entrance into the World Trade Organization.

He said Russians now understand that the United States is trying to encircle them, in part by siding with an unstable Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili. He said Russians were surprised that the West did not care that Georgia attacked first, or that many civilians suffered in South Ossetia.

A poll released last week by the Levada Center, a respected polling institute in Moscow, backed up his assertions, showing that 74 percent of Russians believed that Georgia was a pawn of the United States. Asked the cause of the crisis, 49 percent said it was Washington’s policies in the region, while 32 percent blamed Georgia. Only 5 percent held Russia responsible.

Rogozin added that the West had not understood Russian resentment over Kosovo, which declared independence this year from Serbia, an ally of Moscow, over Russian objections.

He said the Kremlin also bristled at NATO criticism of the Russian military action as not “proportional” because it seemed far more restrained than the NATO bombing of Belgrade, the Serbian capital, in 1999.

“You have no moral right to say it is not proportional,” Rogozin said. “If we did proportionally in the Caucasus what you did in Serbia, then Tbilisi would have been demolished. That would have been proportional.”

Even as the Russian foreign policy establishment seems to move closer to Rogozin’s views, he remains polarizing because of his past. “I myself was perplexed when I heard of this appointment,” said Pavel Zolotaryov, deputy director of the institute for U.S. and Canada studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Zolotaryov added, though, that people in Russia were beginning to view NATO differently. “It turns out that all the words about the cooperation between Russia and NATO remain words,” he said.

U.S. officials at NATO would not comment on Rogozin. Georgia’s representative to NATO, Revaz Beshidze, said that no matter how outlandish Rogozin sounds, he has served a purpose.

“He is implementing strict instructions from Moscow,” Beshidze said.

Before going to Brussels, Rogozin was considered a political has-been, who alienated the Kremlin by making nationalist statements when he was a member of parliament. His former political party, Rodina, which means “motherland” in Russian, campaigned on a platform against immigration of people from the Caucasus (including Georgia) and Central Asia.

Rogozin said he deeply regretted his behavior when he was involved in electoral politics in Moscow, and is hoping to rehabilitate his reputation through his work in Brussels. Still, sometimes it seems as if he cannot help himself.

After arriving in Brussels, he put up in his office a World War II poster that featured armed Soviet soldiers next to a portrait of Stalin. He fancied it as history. Others at NATO headquarters were not as amused.

Rogozin relented and removed it. He said he took it to the United States on his recent visit and gave it to Kissinger. He recounted the story, and then grinned. “Troublemaker!” he said.