Russia – A Shooting Star

Russia – A Shooting Star, according to Wess Mitchell

President of the European Politics Analysis Center (CEPA), believes that U.S. and NATO have invested heavily in resetting the relationship with Russia.

The West sees in Russia either a power in decline, either a partner of the North-Atlantic Alliance. “I see Russia as a power in decline, live a supernova that dies. The good news is that Russia is a shooting star. The bad news is that Russia is a shooting star. ”

The claim belongs to Wess Mitchell, president of European Politics Analysis Center, who added that he fears of Russia’s last negative energies. The problematic relationship between the North Atlantic Alliance and Russia was one of the topics discussed at the conference “NATO-Russia Cooperation in the East. Afghanistan as a new premise”, held recently by Foreign Policy.

Wess Mitchell said that both the USA and NATO have invested heavily in resetting the relationship with Russia. Some U.S. allies in Central and Eastern Europe have developed regional versions of the process of resetting in their own relationship with Moscow.

“If you give time back, to September 2009, I’d say the reset was a bad thing. But that was before the arrival of U.S. Vice President Joe Bidden, in Bucharest, “said Mitchell focusing on the ups and downs of the relationship between the U.S. and Russia, but also between Washington and the former Communist bloc countries. Barack Obama and the members of his administration have avoided in their first year in office this region, but, in contrast, the leader of the White House made a visit to Moscow.

Eastern Europeans have the impression that Washington negotiated with Moscow to their detriment. Therefore, several East European leaders sent an open letter to Washington, which seemed to forget the special transatlantic relationship. To these was added the U.S. decision to drop the installation of missile shield elements in Poland and the Czech Republic. “If we go back to the present we now have a very different picture”, said Mitchell.

“Much has changed since then, “said Mitchell, listing among these changes Biden’s visit and that of the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, in the region, and the progress made in the installment of the missile shield elements in Romania and Bulgaria.

Moscow, which is it?

Several issues have remained unchanged. Russia remains a “fundamentally revisionist” actor  and continues to maintain troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and still has a coercive energy policy. “And maybe the worst, in terms of U.S. and NATO, Russia continues systematically undermine the political systems of Central and Eastern Europe, its former sphere of influence – in order to make them less stable, less open and less corrupt. ”

Wess Mitchell’s conclusion was that the strategic point of view there has been some progress in NATO-Russia relationship, but the geopolitical reset process is rather a failure. By various circles in Washington are discussing whether a “cold shower” hit over the reset.

Gael Moullec, expert in the Department of Political Affairs and Security Committee of NATO, is more optimistic, considering the cooperation between the two entities in Afghanistan, the fight against terrorism and even with regard to missile defense. The official pointed out how the alliance and Moscow are working together in 2007 to train in two centers in Moscow and Turkey, the police in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to meet the challenges of trafficking in narcotics in the area.

Moullec admitted that “not everything is pink.” There are issues which concern: the recognition by Moscow of Abkhazia and South Ossetia or Russia’s recent military doctrine which describes the Alliance as a possible threat to her.

“Russia continues to systematically undermine the political systems of Central and Eastern Europe – its former sphere of influence – in order to make them less stable, less open and less corrupt.”
Wess Mitchell, president of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA)

Asle Toje, Euro-Atlantic security expert at the Nobel Institute in Oslo at the Nobel Institute and author of a book entitled “EU as a small power (European Union, as a low-power, no) said that there was a lack of consensus on the major European powers Germany, Britain, France, EU foreign policy condemns play a small role in ensuring European security, and so in the context of a permanent withdrawal of Americans from the old continent. According to him, many European countries no longer have its own capacity to safeguard its territory and have a weak joint involvement in conflicts, namely in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“In U.S. political circles there is a sense that Europe does not matter as much as before. It is also a positive side, that Europe is not generating difficult situations,” he said. Toje said in Washington that there is an opening on its European partners, but in conditions in which these partners, and will act as it should, you should expect less from the U.S..

Regarding the new  strategic concept, he added that the big question that arises is whether NATO member states will be willing to spend the money necessary for both defense of own territory, and to ensure capacity and expedition.11