Toronto Star
September 28, 2001
Putin emerging as major power broker
Russian leader has new role as a builder of bridges to West
By Olivia Ward
EUROPEAN BUREAU
MOSCOW - Since he took power, Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast
himself on the world stage as a Slavic strongman, an economic reformer
and a battler against Islamic-based terrorism.
Now the international crisis sparked by the terrorist attacks on New
York and Washington has given him a new role of post Cold War statesman,
a builder of bridges between Russia and the West.
He is also emerging as a major power broker in the volatile Central
Asian region bordering Afghanistan, an area where Russia has been
scrambling to maintain its foothold since the Soviet empire broke up in
1991.
This week Putin won a historic standing ovation from German lawmakers
for a speech pledging that the Cold War was definitively over, and
Russia was now a ``friendly European country'' in search of a stable
peace.
He followed it up with a surprise offer of peace talks with Chechen
rebel leaders he has previously scorned as criminals, if they agree
``immediately and unconditionally to cut all contact with international
terrorist groups.''
The overtures to the West, and seeming conciliatory gesture to Chechnya,
was coupled with indications that Moscow wouldn't stand in the way of
U.S. warplanes landing in jealously guarded former Soviet bases in
Central Asia, bordering Afghanistan.
Putin, whose tough defence of Russia's strategic interests have at times
threatened to lapse into anti-Western rhetoric, appeared to have made a
quantum leap toward co-operation with the West following the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks.
There are even rumours that Russia is considering joining NATO, whose
expansion in Eastern Europe has been a source of bitter controversy.
But, some experts say, it is not only the philosophy that ``the enemy of
my enemy is my friend,'' with Washington and Moscow allied in their
fight against world terrorism, that has caused the shift.
``Putin is very serious about co-operation now,'' said Victor Kremenyuk,
deputy director of the U.S.A. and Canada Institute. ``It's also a matter
of damage control.''
With oil prices dropping, and the world's main petroleum producers
rejecting cuts that could force prices upwards and tip the world into a
deep recession, Putin is aware the underpinnings of Russia's economic
recovery are shaky.
``The main thing is the economy, and the threat that if the oil prices
drop even further our crisis will be bigger next year,'' said Kremenyuk.
``There's no option but for him to reschedule Russia's debt, asking for
loans and credits, because otherwise the country may not survive.''
And, he said, the softer stand on NATO is partly a way of avoiding
embarrassment as the alliance prepares to take in three Baltic states
that were once under Soviet rule, against Moscow's strong opposition.
``I think the most rational next step would be to try to limit the
damage through closer relations, and play down the threat from NATO,
which was very often (voiced) by Putin's military entourage,'' said
Kremenyuk.
Putin's decision not to pressure Uzbekistan and usually obedient
Tajikistan into closing their air space to the United States, was one of
his biggest tests of strength in the Kremlin corridors.
``Putin's reaction was unbelievably straightforward,'' said Lilia
Shevtsova of the Carnegie Moscow Centre. ``For the first time he's not
waiting until it's too late. His answers are usually muted. But this
time he has come out with the right reaction - openly pro-Western.''
Putin has made it clear Russia has no interest in plunging into another
war in Afghanistan, where it took devastating losses in the 1980s and
beat a humiliating retreat.
But the Russian leader is embattled in Chechnya, the separatist mountain
territory he describes as a hotbed of terrorism, funded by America's
chief suspect in the New York and Washington attacks, Osama bin Laden.
After resisting any peace moves since the conflict broke out in August
1999, Putin is now asking Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov to ``cut all
ties'' with foreign-funded terror groups, and ask his fighters to turn
in their weapons within 72 hours as a precondition to negotiations.
There are concerns the offer is little more than an ultimatum, and an
excuse for a massive onslaught against Chechnya that would now be
ignored by a shell-shocked West.
``I don't see it as a peace move,'' said Alexander Iskandarian of the
Centre for Caucasian Studies.
``I think this is pressure on the Chechen guerrillas, and he's turning
up the heat.''
By declaring himself an ally of the West's fight against terrorism so
promptly, Putin has won points that were previously denied him.
Western diplomats have already hinted that he will be rewarded with a
more ``flexible'' attitude to human rights abuses in Chechnya, where
thousands of people have disappeared, been killed, and have died from
disease and malnutrition.
``Putin's hands are untied now,'' said Iskandarian.
``He will use the anti-terrorism war as an excuse for whatever he
does.''
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/
