Roots of Russia, U.S. distrust 5

U.S., RUSSIAN RELATIONS, POST WW2, PART 5

COMMUNIST EXPERIMENT ENDS

MAJOR POLICY ERROR BY THE WEST

Boris Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian Soviet Federation Socialist Republic on June 12, 1991. With the resignation of Gorbachev he became the first elected president of the Russian Federation on Dec. 25th, 1991. One must take note that Yeltsin was the first elected president in the history of Russia. Democracy, free markets, and self government  had not existed at any time in their history. This was a population of much ethnic, cultural, political, and religious diversity. Yeltsin set out to embrace free market capitalism in a country with no experience and very little exposure to these ideas. It is a marvel that such a transition began in such a peaceful manner. There were still communists and many who would have preferred the old system. There was still great distrust of the west and capitalism. Ronald Reagan and the U.S. had the highest approval of the Russian people in history. Some in this country believed it was a plan to lull the U.S and its allies into complacency. Reagan's motto was, " Trust but verify", this attitude was acceptable to the Russians.

Yeltsin began by privatizing all government industry, this was accomplished by giving citizens vouchers for 10,000 rubles that could be transferred into shares of stock. While this was an admirable idea, many of the Russian people did not value these options and sold them to the more sophisticated members of their society. These were primarily former government officials and communist party members. This created the era of the oligarchs, who became very rich and powerful in a very short time. Yeltsin also urged cooperation with many economists from the U.S. and other western countries to advise them on how to move to a capitalist system.  I personally remember this time as a time of great hope of  peace and the welcoming of Russia into the community of nations. This was desired by many in Russia and the rest of the world. It was not to be a smooth transition, as one could imagine, but it was a movement that was now irreversible, at least as far as returning to communism. Boris Yeltsin was re-elected in 1996. These were times were we enjoyed the best relations with Russian and the west since 1917.

As the Soviet Union was being replaced by independence of the former Warsaw Pact countries and Russia, many negotiations were being engaged in to create a stable transition. The Russian Federation and NATO agreed that the unified Germany could be a member of NATO, but that all of the former Warsaw Pact countries would be independent entities. These agreements have been verified by former west German diplomats and former negotiators for the United States. Russia still had a memory of the fact that their survival was secured in the wars with Napoleon, WW1 and WW2 by the large distances from their possible enemies. Their large terrain was similar to our security of the Atlantic and Pacific ocean. This agreement was broken on July 8, 1997 when NATO agreed to the inclusion of Hungary, the Check Republic and Poland into NATO. This was accomplished in 1999. In 2004 Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania were also included.  According to George F. Kennan, an American diplomat and an advocate of the containment policy, this decision "may be expected to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking. This decision was criticized by many military, political and academic leaders as a " policy error of historic proportions." It seemed to be more than a policy error, but an intentional attempt to abort the democratization of Russia. This could be compared to Stalin's refusal to abide by his commitments at the end of WW2.

This attempt to encircle the Russian Federation  at a time of its vulnerability brought out the worst fears of the Russians. It would be no different than Mexico and Canada joining the former Warsaw Pact. This was the beginning of the new distrust between Russia and the United States and its allies.


originally published 1/26/17 part 5 of 7