By Vitaly PORTNYKOV, The Day
Life seems to be trying to prove the thesis I allowed myself to express
in a previous column. We witness today the phenomenon of the impotence
of a strong power in the post-Soviet space. That power becomes adventuristic
and unpredictable: it cannot even predict itself and foresee the effects
of its various actions. General Zavarzin's 200 paratroopers at the Pristina
airport: is this a real proof of the Russian ability to keep abreast with
NATO states, or a stubborn desire to behave on the international political
arena the way it does at home, in Gorky (Russian President's country retreat
- Ed.)? Of course, the world was at first shocked and stunned by
the Russians coming, but then, when NATO troops crossed the Macedonian-Yugoslav
border, when it turned out that the Russian were not in a position to reinforce
their small contingent without coordination with NATO because their planes
would not be allowed to fly over Hungarian, Rumanian, or Bulgarian territory
under the existing agreements, when the question of where to get the money
was put point-blank (it remains to be hoped that Michel Camdessus will
not put this question to his Russian interlocutors), Moscow's action began
to take on an entirely different light. It looked not even like a victory
of the war party or leading Russian generals, but like a demonstration
of Yeltsin's style in politics. The point is we saw it earlier in domestic
policies. and now see it in the foreign policy.
Russia is becoming an unpredictable neighbor, and there is nothing to
be done about it. One can, of course, challenge the very essence of NATO's
action and try to prove that it signals the breakdown of the system that
came about after World War II, but the NATO countries informed the world
in advance and in detail about their intentions and actions. The Russians
moved their troops into Kosovo, as usual, without asking: this is the difference
between the Byzantine political tradition and modern rules of behavior.
They did it silently and suddenly, as if surrounded by enemies, explaining
this by the strange reasoning that if the Russians had not been the first
to enter Pristina they would have never entered it.
A state has a right to defend its own interests, but a democratic state
should do it openly. We know nothing about the Russian authorities: how
decisions are made, how the government is formed, or who gives orders.
However, we see the decisions themselves. These are decisions of an
impotent and complex-ridden power. It seeks to show strength even by playing
toy soldiers.
Pity the poor toy soldiers...
INCIDENTALLY
The self-criticizing Russians immediately reacted to the coming of paratroopers
to Kosovo by placing a new joke on the Russian Jokes server: "The whole
world looks forward to our peacekeepers sobering up and explaining how
they got into Kosovo."






