Clegg and Moscow: This Is Wrong

The news that Nick Clegg thinks that the next World Cup should be taken away from Russia, jumps onto the hysterical anti-Putin bandwagon whipped up in western media by people who have little grasp of the facts. The deputy prime minister should know better. Russia is not a rogue state, there are good historic reasons for its support of the Russian majority in eastern Ukraine and its restoration of Crimea to the Russian Federation. All of this was part of the Soviet Union and because of that the populations are culturally and ethnically mixed. Russia’s position is exactly similar to the British view of its continued control of the Falklands, Gibraltar and Northern Ireland.

Too little of western foreign policy,  led by the US and an increasingly strident UK, is about making friends and too much of it actually makes enemies. Too many of the friends turn out to disappoint. The headlong flight of the staff of the US Embassy from Tripoli over the border to Tunisia underscores the embarrassing and little reported fact that post Gaddafi Libya is a failed state and about to break up.  The West is accumulating the greatest foreign policy failures in modern history, with mounting  jihadist threats emerging in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan. It is backing a very unsavoury nationalist grouping in Kiev, the prime minister of which has resigned and the coalition split apart. Its peace initiatives in Palestine get nowhere and terrible slaughter now ensues as a stubborn Hamas and a heavy handed Israel engage in their third war.

The last thing the West needs is another Cold War or even a chill in its relations with Moscow. Most of the problems, especially Ukraine, Iran and Syria cannot be solved without Russian input. Foreign policy is not a football tournament. To work in the national interest and the interest of all nations it has to be nuanced, pragmatic consensus building and constructive. The object is to turn enemies into friends, not friends into enemies. Everyone knows Russia did not shoot down MH17. Everyone knows too, that the most likely explanation is that the plane was shot down by mistake by separatists using sophisticated weaponry without due care for target identification. It has been a public relations disaster for both the separatists and Moscow.

On the other hand Kiev has gained authority and status. That is why some harbour the suspicion that Kiev is hiding something. Meanwhile its government in parliament has collapsed and the money has all but run out. By the end of this week it will not be able to pay its army. Instead of making childish gestures to Moscow, Clegg needs to turn his attention to his bright new ally and find out what is going on in Kiev.

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