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Alliance against Iraq war may split over fears of US backlash: Russian press
February 27, 2003
AFP

The anti-war alliance between Russia, France and Germany is weak and could be broken at any moment because all three countries fear a major split with the United States over their stance on Iraq, the Russian press said Thursday.

The harsh analysis came one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder held talks in Moscow reaffirming their view that Iraq must be disarmed peacefully.

"Moscow is not 100 percent sure that France and Germany will not cede to American pressure and Russia does not want to remain isolated in the UN Security Council," an unnammed source told the liberal Kommersant business daily. "The two leaders tried to understand to what point each country is ready to defend its interests," the daily said.

Permanent UN Security Council members France and Russia as well as rotating member Germany presented a memorandum to the United Nations on Monday, urging intensified weapons inspections to disarm Iraq peacefully.

It was seen as a counter-proposal to the resolution filed by the United States, Britain and Spain, that would authorize the use of force against Baghdad for failing to comply with UN disarmament demands.

"Russia is attempting to balance, and not deeply engage with, Paris and Berlin," the centrist Izvestia daily said.

"The Russian elite is convinced that Russia must not conflict with the United States in its alliance with France and Germany," it said.

Yet Putin came out with some of his harshest remarks on Iraq after meeting Schroeder on Wednesday, saying that any UN resolution automatically calling for war would be unacceptable.

Russian officials have hinted that Moscow could use its Security Council veto to override a resolution authorizing the use of force, but that option was dismissed by the liberal Vremya Novostei.

"There are doubts that Moscow will use its UN Security Council veto to show its loyalty to the European choice," the daily said.

"The unity of the United Nations means too much to Russia and Putin is not interested in testing his friendship with (US President George W.) Bush," it said.

The paper said that Schroeder's visit was meant to win guarantees from Russia that it would continue to oppose war in Iraq "should France take Bush's side."

Putin made an "unprecedented" gesture to show his support, the daily said, by authorizing German military convoys to pass through Russian territory on their way to Afghanistan.

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