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Russian Academics Reported Urging End to 'Anti-American Hysteria'
Rossiyskaya Gazeta
2 April 2003
"No Good Getting Hysterical. So Many Russian Political Analysts Believe"

Russia has been unable to stop the war in Iraq and can no longer influence the course of the war. But it can still take steps to minimize the damage to its interests at the end of the war. Vladimir Razumovskiy, director of the Institute of Applied International Research, used this as a major stimulus to further debate at a meeting of international experts at the Higher School of Economics. The subject for discussion was theses elaborated by the institute's experts and combined under the title: "Russia Has Already Lost the War in Iraq -- It Needs Urgent Reconciliation with the United States."

Given that, the document's authors believe, demands for an immediate cessation of the war are counterproductive. Emotional outbursts have obscured Russia's long-term interests. Russia's long-term strategy, initiated by Vladimir Putin in 2001, of developing and strengthening cooperation with the world's developed countries in the interests of combating international terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction is in doubt.

To rectify the situation Russian diplomacy, which, according to the compilers of the theses, has thus far been operating unsuccessfully, needs to tackle several very important tasks. First and foremost, it needs to try to restore as quickly as possible the unity of actions of the key countries, whose positions diverged on the eve of the war: United States, Britain, France, Germany, and Russia. It is advisable to take the first steps in this direction within the framework of preparations for the G8 summit. At the same time, it is necessary to pursue a policy of bringing the discussion of the Iraq issue back into the UN fold -- although not to resume fruitless discussions about ways of disarming Iraq, but to devise a coordinated postwar policy.

Georgiy Mirskiy, head research associate at the Russian Academy of Sciences World Economics and International Relations Institute, believes that when the actual military phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the success of which is virtually assured, is over, the United States will face major expense during the postwar reorganization of the country. All the Americans' previous experiences, accumulated during the occupation of German and Japan, will be useless in the case of Iraq. "The Iraqis have a totally different mentality, and no matter what happens in Iraq, they will still blame the United States for all their problems."

In other words, the so-called "Vietnam syndrome" is not inconceivable. This scenario, Andrey Piontkovskiy, director of the Center for Strategic Research, believes, would result in a complete US withdrawal from the Near East with radical Islamists coming to power and the proliferation of missile technology in the region together with all the inevitable consequences. This would lead to a domestic political crisis in the United States itself, with an advocate of extreme isolationism probably wining the next presidential election. As a result America would be completely cut off from the outside world with all its problems and challenges and would concentrate solely on safeguarding its own security, which, in turn, would lead to the uncontrolled strengthening of China. All these seismic changes, as Piontkovskiy put it, are serious threats to Russia's national security. Therefore the anti-American hysteria must stop.

State Duma deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov took issue with the main postulate of the proposed theses. We cannot win or lose this war, since it is not our war, Ryzhkov gently objected. But we must get rid of the anti-Americanism, which, in his view, caused the antiwar mood in Russia (and not pacifism, as in most other countries).

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