Brief history of U.S. Russian relations, Part 5 and 6

 

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

 U.S., RUSSIAN RELATIONS POST WW2 PART 6

NEW COLD WAR BEGINS

Boris Yeltsin stated that his goal was to transform social economics into a capitalist market economy and nationwide privatization. The 1990's were a period of economic depression and much anxiety about the future. Yeltsin survived a coup attempt and cracked down on political opponents. It was no easy task to move a country from communism to capitalism. There was also a war in Chechnya that was suppressed by the Russian Federation. One must note that the Soviet Union was the first to take notice of the danger of Islamic fundamentalism. While dealing with much adversity, Yeltsin was still re-elected in 1996, but he was in ill health with severe heart problems. On Dec. 31, 1999, Yeltsin resigned and the then prime minister, Vladimir Putin, succeeded him. Putin had moved up quickly from the deputy mayor of St. Petersburg to the prime minister in less than 8 years. Yeltsin had appointed him prime minister in August of 1999, and he was approved by a strong margin in the Duma. He ran for president in the 2000 election and won with 53% of the vote. The Russian economy grew for 8 straight years, helped by high commodity prices. In his first four year term the Gross domestic product increased by 72%. He had some success in diminishing the power of the oligarchs. He was re-elected in 2004 with 73% of the vote. In his second term he increasingly took more power unto himself. He was also president of the "Unity Party" which was becoming the dominate party in the country. He was seen as taking more and more power and began to see an increase in demonstrations and opposition. At the same time he also had made meaningful reforms that bettered the life of Russians. The Unity Party won 64% of the vote in the Duma elections and Putin enjoyed a high popularity with the citizens.

Russia and the United States had favorable relations in many ways, considerable success in limiting nuclear weapons, a joint space venture that continues today, joint support against Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and many more agreements too numerous for this blog. The inclusion of Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary by NATO in 1999 was not protested too much because of the instability of the country and all the problems associated with shifting to a free market economy. But when the next NATO expansion was proposed, and then consummated, the attitude changed to a wariness of the motives of the U.S. and the West. The plan proposed by Bush 2  to station a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic was countered by the Russian Federation. The Federation implied their missiles would be aimed at those installations and it was even suggested that they might take them out. Relations definitely became more tense. There were many meetings with Bush 1, then Clinton, Bush 2, and finally Obama. While much progress was made, the expansion of NATO  to former Warsaw Pact countries and then the placing of missiles on their border set the stage for much more distrust. Additionally, Putin accused Secretary of State Hilary Clinton of being involved with internal opposition in the 2011 election. Joe Biden made derogatory comments about the Russian economy and military power, stating that the U.S. had the stronger hand. Neo-cons continuously bragged of defeating the Soviet Union.

In 2008, due to constitutional limits on consecutive terms. Putin was barred from running for president. Dmitry Medvedev was elected president and he appointed Putin as his prime minister. This sparked protests and outrage across the country. Prime minister Putin worked on correcting the demographic declines in the country and encouraging an increase in the birth rate with subsidies. The church was re instituted and the Russian Orthodox church was repaid for property seized after the revolution. In 2012 he was able to again run for the presidency and won with 63% of the vote. While all polling places were monitored, the opposition claimed fraud and international groups claimed irregularities. Tensions with the West increased. In 2012 the Russian Duma, with Putin's support, outlawed homosexual propaganda to minors. They stated that no action was to be taken against homosexuals, but the law was to protect the children. This was followed by outrage in the West.

Up to this time one would have to say Russian actions were mostly resistance to any further encroachment by NATO and a desire to set their own path. The verbal onslaught from the U.S. and the West increased with accusations against Putin and a blatant attempt to embarrass Russia. This was evident during the 2014 Winter Olympics, when Bob Costas, the announcer for NBC sports, degraded everything he could about the Russian facilities and expressed his political bias against everything Russian. While Vladimir Putin may not be the West's image of a democratic leader and this may be true, this situation was not a one sided affair. It seems Russia and Putin pose a dilemma for the U.S. neo-cons who would like to isolate Russia from all foreign affairs and would prefer a cold war and the left who view Putin's rejection of socialism and his resistance to allow homosexual activists a free reign in Russia as treasonous to their cause.

This situation was about to enter a new era of not just Russian resistance, but actual provocation by Putin toward the West.

originally published 1/29/17  part 6 of 7