Back in June I wrote about the prospect of a new Cold War after the revelation that Russia was threatening to target European cities because of America's insistence of its placing components to its missile defence shield in the Czech Republic and Poland which would include installations of radar and missile batteries which Russia sees as a threat to its security. Relations with Russia have continued to deteriorate with the on-going saga of the polonium 210 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and Putin's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi who the British Government suspect is responsible for the murder.
Recently things have gotten worse. Not to the point where we are in a new Cold War but certainly much closer. Even the BBC Russian Service has been taken off air. An already tense situation between Georgia and Russia has become even more tense with reports that Russian fighter jets attacked a village near Tbilisi earlier this month. Luckily no one was hurt. Was this meant as a message to the other eastern European states as Mr Merabishvili, the Georgian interior minister suggested? Possibly but if so, Russia has also been flexing its muscles in other ways, both diplomatically and militarily. A couple of days ago we heard that Russia was to resume long-range strategic bomber flights on a "permanent" basis, for the first time in 15 years. There were hints of something like this happening back in July when Russian bombers forced the RAF to scramble two Tornado fighters when they came dangerously close to British airspace. Russian Bombers also buzzed a US military base in Guam this month.
America's imperial dream of Full Spectrum Dominance has suffered another blow with news that Russia and China are taking part in military exercises together. It's not the first time they have done participated in such joint exercises, so that alone wouldn't worry Washington too much. Much more worrisome for the neocons is the strength of this alliance and its rapid growth. China's opposition to America's missile defence shield is well known.
The six-member Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) has already been dubbed by pro-Kremlin newspapers as an "anti-Nato" alliance and a "Warsaw Pact 2". This is where it gets interesting. The SCO comprises of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. That's a lot of energy-producing states and a good chunk of central Asia. As well as these member states, are a number of candidate states including: Pakistan, India, Mongolia and, more interestingly, Iran. Obviously Iran's membership is something Washington is desperately trying to prevent but American influence in the region is waning with its antagonism of Russia and the debacle in Iraq. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, recently attended the summit as guest of honour. If the SCO is to evolve into a counter-balance to NATO then an attack on one member would be seen as an attack on all.
Iran is not yet a full member of the SCO and China may well try to delay Iran's membership because of its economic relationship with the West. But there are obvious advantages to granting Iran membership too. With NATO's constant eastward expansion (contrary to its promises to Russia at the end of the last Cold War), it was only a matter of time before an organisation formed to halt this advance. Russia seems to be taking full advantage of this situation and this time it's in a much stronger position than it was in the last days of the USSR.
Tags: New Cold War, Russia, Missile Shield, US Politics, SCO, Central Asia, NATO
0 Comments:
Post a Comment