Coming into its own

Under Mr. Putin, Russia has learnt to conduct a multi-vectral foreign policy without looking back at Washington, writes VLADIMIR RADYUHIN.

AFTER 10 years of chaos and decline Russia is finally turning round. Twelve months after its first post-Soviet President, Mr. Boris Yeltsin, handed over the reins of power on New Year eve to his chosen successor, Mr. Vladimir Putin, the economy has posted a seven per cent growth, the highest in 30 years. Economic recovery is still shaky and largely depends on record-high oil prices. To achieve stable growth Russia must attract foreign investment and increase exports. Hence, Mr. Putin's preoccupation with foreign policy, which in line with his declared concept is to serve a very pragmatic goal of facilitating the economic revival at home.

Mr. Putin has become one of the world's most widely travelled leaders. Over the past eight months he has made 19 foreign visits and received at least as many foreign dignitaries at the Kremlin. His bristling activity stands in stark contrast with the near- total immobility of the ailing Mr. Yeltsin towards the end of his rule.

The contrast with Mr. Yeltsin's foreign policy is even more glaring. Mr. Putin has broken with the whimsical, bombastic, bear-hugging diplomacy of his predecessor in favour of an assertive and purposeful foreign policy within the constraints of Russia's drastically reduced military and economic might. Mr. Putin has overcome the syndrome of Russia's post-Soviet weakness and excessive focus on the United States. Moscow has learnt to conduct a multi-vectral foreign policy without looking back at Washington.

Russia's recent decision to ditch a 1995 confidential accord with the U.S. to halt weapon sales to Iran is a graphic example of Mr. Putin's new foreign policy. Washington, which continues to blacklist Iran as a ``sponsor of terrorism'', has threatened to slap economic sanctions against Russia, but Mr. Putin says he is not to be pushed around. ``We will never allow anyone to dictate their will to us, he said at a recent meeting of top military brasshats in Moscow.

It is not just to poke a thumb in Washington's eye that Moscow is forging ties with countries labelled ``rogue states'' by the U.S. It is driven by pragmatic economic and strategic interests. Arms supplies to Iran are expected to bring billions of dollars to Russia in the next few years. Moreover, Kremlin sources say Iran may emerge as Russia's strategic partner, like India or China, and do not rule out Mr. Putin's visit to Teheran next year.

He has imparted new momentum to Russian ties with India and China and became the first Russian leader to visit North Korea. This week Mr. Putin will travel to Cuba to revive bilateral economic cooperation that fizzled out after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and to Canada, which shares Russia's concerns about U.S. plans to scrap the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Russia recently opened talks with Libya for military contracts, defied the U.S.-imposed ``no-fly zone'' in Iraq to start humanitarian aid flights to Baghdad, and moved to reassert its role in the West Asian peace process.

Mr. Putin has drastically overhauled Mr. Yeltsin's inept and rudderless policy towards the former Soviet republics, moving to forge closer economic and military ties with pro-Moscow states, such as Belarus and Kazakhstan, and taking a tough stand against those which ignore Russian national interests. Russia has slapped visa restrictions against Georgia, which shelters Chechen rebels, and charted out a new pipeline to Europe to bypass gas-stealing Ukraine.

In a further unravelling of Mr. Yeltsin's foreign policy, Russia ruled out handing over to Japan the disputed Kuril islands, a possibility Mr. Yeltsin hinted at two years ago. At a Foreign Ministers' conference of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe a week ago Russia refused to set a timeframe for honouring the commitments Mr. Yeltsin made a year ago at an OSCE summit in Istanbul - to dismantle Russian military bases in the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia, withdraw troops from Moldova and allow an OSCE mission into Chechnya. Last month Russia deployed nuclear-capable long-range bombers at its Arctic's bases to probe North America air defences. The Russian military said the bombers could be an inexpensive response to U.S. plans to build a national missile defence.

It would be wrong, however, to see these moves as signs of a renewed Cold War confrontation. It is rather an attempt to combine firmness in upholding national interests with flexibility in seeking new foreign policy opportunities. Russia has resumed the Partnership for Peace programme with NATO, freezed in protest against NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia. Moscow has agreed to supply more natural gas to Europe to reduce the latter's dependence on West Asian oil. It has also sought to exploit Europe's striving for greater independence from the U.S. by proposing a joint missile defence with European states and offering to cooperate with a rapid reaction force contemplated by the European Union.

Russia's foreign policy partly owes its new boldness and sophistication to greater involvement of the foreign intelligence service, SVR, which has traditionally had a strong analytical component. Mr. Putin, a former KGB officer himself, has put a senior SVR general, Mr. Sergei Ivanov, in charge of the Kremlin's strategy-planning Security Council, and appointed the former SVR head, Mr. Vyacheslav Trubnikov, as First Deputy Foreign Minister.

What is more important, however, is political will to defend national interests and play a more prominent role in world affairs, which Mr. Putin has and Mr. Yeltsin lacked.

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