Thursday, 25 November, 1999, BBC:
No 'Cold War' over Chechnya
The United States has signalled that it does not want
to link international aid to Russia with the war in
Chechnya.
* That would be embarrassing. For its own imperialist reasons the USA would
rather appease Russian aggression against the right of the Chechens to
self-determination.
US Secretary of State,
Madeleine Albright, said that the
war in Chechnya must not be
allowed to damage relations
between Russia and the West,
and turn Russia back into a Cold War enemy.
* Naturally not, it would rather allow Russia to develop as a
sub-imperialism so long as it can be run by Yeltsin and the oligarchs in
alliance with western imperialism.
She was speaking after Russian Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin ordered more than $100m be added
to the Chechnya war budget.
Some US officials have recently suggested
Washington might block International Monetary
Fund (IMF) loans if Russian military action in
Chechnya intensified.
Mrs Albright said that the
two issues, of IMF loans
and the war, should be
kept separate.
"We believe it is very
important for there to be
economic stability in
Russia. That is in our national interest," she said.
"The last thing I think that we should be doing is
trying to turn Russia back into an enemy. We spent
50 years in that mode."
She added that the recent 10th anniversary of the
fall of the Berlin Wall "made it apparent to me one
more time how much time was lost during the Cold
War."
Mrs Albright reiterated that the Chechen conflict
should be solved through political dialogue.
Our correspondent in Washington, Richard Lister,
says this is a politically awkward situation for
Washington.
* Ha!
The US is facing an uncomfortable choice. Either it
can give financial support to a government whose
military tactics it roundly condemns, or withhold
assistance and jeopardise both relations with Russia
and the economic stability of the region as a whole.
The army was promised the extra funds in October,
but the IMF warned that it would suspend help if
military spending ran out of control.
* How embarrassing!
Chris Burford
London
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