Оросыг дээрэлхэх гэж оролдсон чинь Путин АНУд салаавч өгчээ
This is a very important article which tells what what the leadership in Washington thinks about when they think about Russia. Former US Ambassador to Russia, William Burns, contemplates US- Russian relationship. This is the view of the educated elite that runs State Dept. and Foreign relations.
His recollection are interesting by themselves, but as he goes through various details and confessions, he -- in his post-diplomatic career - -lets certain things slide. And these nuggets are worth its price in gold:
1. Russia was expected to act like US junior partner.
"We each had our illusions. America thought that Moscow would eventually get accustomed to being our junior partner, and grudgingly accommodate NATO expansion even up to its border with Ukraine."
2. Russia has become irrational as it lost its superpower status. It, therefore, can't be taken seriously:
"President Bill Clinton tried hard to manage Russia’s post-traumatic stress disorder, but his push for the eastward expansion of NATO reinforced Russian resentments...
I worried about the eventual resurgence of a Russia stewing in its own grievances and insecurities. I just had no idea that .. Vladimir Putin—would emerge as the embodiment of that peculiarly Russian combination of qualities."
3. Russians insist on having their grievances heard, but who cares!:
"You Americans need to listen more,” President Putin said as I handed him my credentials as ambassador, before I had gotten a word out of my mouth. “You can’t have everything your way anymore. We can have effective relations, but not just on your terms.” It was 2005, and in the ensuing years I would hear that message again and again."
4. Russians were naive to expect friendship and cooperation from the US, which instead has treated them as a defeated and conquered country:
"Putin fundamentally misread American interests and politics. The Bush administration had no desire—and saw no reason—to trade anything for a Russian partnership against al‑Qaeda. It had little inclination to concede much to a declining power."
5. Russians have repeatedly warned of crossing the red lines, but the red lines exist only for Americans:
"Standing before the fire, Putin wagged his index finger and warned, “If Saakashvili starts something, we will finish it...
Saakashvili is nothing more than a puppet of the United States,” Putin said sharply. “You need to pull back on the strings before there’s trouble.”
6. None of the American presidents, neither Bushes, nor Clinton, nor Obama ever cared to understand what Russians are complaining about:
"En route to Putin’s dacha outside the city, I suggested that Obama open the meeting with a question. Why not ask Putin for his candid assessment of what he thought had gone right, and what had gone wrong, in Russian-American relations over the past decade? ... Obama’s initial question produced an unbroken 55-minute monologue filled with grievances, sharp asides, and acerbic commentary."
7. Russians are paranoid and irrational in their assessment of the danger that US poses:
"But the upheavals of the Arab Spring unnerved Putin; he reportedly watched the grisly video of the demise of the Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi—caught hiding in a drainage pipe and killed by Western-backed rebels—over and over again... Putin has a remarkable capacity for storing up slights and grievances, and assembling them to fit his narrative of the West trying to keep Russia down."
So that's all there is to know, really. US has the right to act like an aggressive school bully, interfering, provoking, escalating, acting with all cruelty and indifference it can master, and Russians are simply paranoid to worry about it.
The lack of self-awareness is astonishing. Has anyone in Washington ever contemplated have how not to treat a traumatized -- and Russian experience of XX century is nothing but traumatic-- animal, child, a person, or a group of people? Has the random violence that breaks out in schools, in neighborhoods, or work-places have taught us anything? Clearly not. How sad!
https://www.facebook.com/vladimir.golst ... 1755113990
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... jNyR3e8PEc