DATE=11/22/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA AND THE WEST
NUMBER=5-44088
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO:  Russia's defiant rejection of foreign 
criticism of its military offensive in Chechnya has 
sent East-West relations plummeting to their lowest 
levels since the Cold War.  V-O-A Moscow correspondent 
Peter Heinlein reports Russia's leaders are taking an 
increasingly confrontational stance toward the West.

TEXT:  The world saw an angry Boris Yeltsin at last 
week's European Security summit in Istanbul.

/// YELTSIN ACT IN RUSSIAN, THEN FADE TO...///

He says, "You don't have the right to criticize Russia 
for Chechnya." Mr. Yeltsin's words echoed similarly 
tough statements from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, 
as well as from Russia's Defense and Foreign 
Ministers, and a number of senior generals.

The defiant stand has been roundly applauded at home, 
where the military offensive in Chechnya enjoys solid 
public support.

/// NATALYA ACT IN RUSSIAN, THEN FADE TO...///

"Yeltsin was right to tell them  not  to interfere.  
It's our internal business." This 60-year old 
pensioner, who identified herself only as Natalya, 
said, "you don't interfere in the affairs of a 
neighboring family when the husband and wife are 
quarrelling."

A sampling of Moscow public opinion indicates what 
experts have been saying for months.  Russians 
increasingly believe that the West, especially the 
United States, has been taking advantage of Russian 
weakness since the Soviet Union collapsed.

Political analyst Alan Rousso of the Moscow Carnegie 
Center says a Cold War mentality has gradually taken 
hold among Russia's political elite since the economic 
crash of August of last year.

            /// ROUSSO ACT ///

      I think since the crash in August there has been 
      an overall shift in the way many Russians think 
      about the West and think about the United States 
      in particular, and since then it has been one 
      thing after another, including the formal 
      absorption of three former Warsaw Pact states 
      into NATO, then suddenly the war in Kosovo, the 
      war in Yugoslavia, which demonstrated to 
      Russians that the world had become an 
      increasingly more dangerous place for them, and 
      increasingly marginalized them from the issues 
      at the heart of European security. Then you add 
      to that the (allegations of a) money laundering 
      scandal and the war in Chechnya and by all means 
      the relationship can be said to have reached a 
      new low.

            /// END ACT ///

Moscow political analyst Andrei Piontkowsky says the 
current Russian leadership, which was raised to 
believe the West was its enemy, is reacting 
instinctively to a perceived threat.

            /// PIONTKOWSKY ACT ///

      /// Opt /// I think the reasons are basically 
      psychological, this irritation of Russian 
      political class who are physically the Soviet 
      political class. /// End opt ///  These people 
      are very much frustrated with the downgrading of 
      (the) role of Russia from the superpower to the, 
      let's say, major regional power. Very often the 
      anti-American posturing is driven not by (a) 
      real problem or real national interests, but by 
      those deep psychological complexes.

            /// END ACT ///

The result is a sharp increase not only in anti-
western rhetoric, but also in military muscle flexing. 
In addition to the Chechen conflict, Russia has 
recently conducted three high-profile launches of 
nuclear capable missiles. One analyst called the 
launches a reminder that Moscow is still a power to be 
reckoned with.

A number of prominent international experts have 
expressed concern about the potential for a further 
downturn in relations. Dmitry Simes of the Nixon 
Center in Washington was quoted this week as saying 
Americans are increasingly viewing Russia as a country 
out of control, where the democratic experiment is 
proving to be badly flawed.

Mr. Simes said Russians see the United States as a 
rogue superpower, which hypocritically supports 
Russian reforms, but in fact wants to undermine 
Russia.

Harvard University Professor Richard Pipes told a 
recent forum that Prime Minister Putin and the Russian 
generals reflect Moscow's mood at the height of the 
Cold War. He suggested the West should deal with 
Russia by showing both "great sensitivity and great 
firmness."  (Signed)

NEB/PFH/GE/KL 



22-Nov-1999 15:16 PM EDT (22-Nov-1999 2016 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.