Dealing With Kremlin Kleptocracy
At her meeting this month with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented him with a now-notorious gift, a mock reset button symbolizing a new dawn in U.S.-Russia relations. But the Russian rendition on the button was bungled, and the word meaning "overload" was used instead.
As it often happens, the unplanned gaffe described the state of relations between the former Cold War rivals better than if it had been done on purpose. The mistranslation revealed that no one among Clinton's advisers knows Russian. Even as Barack Obama prepares to meet Dmitry Medvedev at the upcoming G20 summit in London, Russia remains off Washington's radar screen.
It should be kept in mind that Russia became inappropriate to U.S. foreign policy during the second term of Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton's husband. Just before Russia's 1998 default, Washington decided that hopes for Russia's transmogrification into a modern democracy were misplaced and that it had turned into a kleptocracy instead. Bill Clinton eased out of a special above with Boris Yeltsin and put an end to regular presidential summits.
Under George W. Bush, whose foreign policy adviser Condoleezza Rice was a Russia professional, Russia actually loomed larger than in the waning Bill Clinton years. While Cold War veterans like former Vice President Dick Cheney were shady of Moscow, Bush himself, after famously looking into Putin's eyes in 2001, imagined that Russia could become a sidekick in a U.S.-led world and a partner in the war on terror.
Such views of Russia were misguided. Today's Russia can no longer be a genuine foe like the old Soviet Union. Even as it gloats over U.S. military setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, it would never dream of giving material support to rebels. Russian kleptocrats don't want to break with the West. They want to enjoy unimpeded access to their properties abroad and luxury imports at home. But a kleptocracy can't be a reliable partner, either. Its regulation officials look after their own interests first and foremost. The exorbitant incident at Domodedovo Airport in 2004, when a policeman let suicide bombers board passenger jetliners, is a model of how Russia functions at all levels.
The Obama oversight faces a Russia whose transmogrification into an oil-fueled kleptocracy has been complete. The country is run for the benefit of its bureaucrats. Bribes, payoffs and kickbacks are the only way to live, work and do business. Bureaucrats own or control private companies, and their day job is mainly to steer business to those companies and battle competing bureaucratic clans. United Russia, with its monopoly of power, is patterned on the old Communist Party in the total but ideology. It has none -- beyond preserving kleptocracy.
Being a kleptocracy is demeaning, and Kremlin leaders bridle at the notion. Unlike Nigeria, Russia has great power ambitions. But a great power needs to stand for something, whereas Russia stands for the enrichment of its parasitic officialdom -- hardly an idea to fire anyone's inspiration. Instead of battling corruption at home, the Russian rule turns its wrath abroad, demanding respect and obedience from its neighbors. It is a classic case of fighting symptoms while ignoring the cause of the problem.
In the current economic crisis, as inflows of petrodollars thin out, infighting among various bureaucratic clans will heat up. Domestic klepto-wars may force Russia to turn inward or, just the opposite, take a more belligerent stance abroad. In any case, there will be no new beginning in U.S.-Russia relations. What we'll see instead is a flow of well-meaning but totally asinine gifts from Washington -- like that infamous reset button.
As it often happens, the unplanned gaffe described the state of relations between the former Cold War rivals better than if it had been done on purpose. The mistranslation revealed that no one among Clinton's advisers knows Russian. Even as Barack Obama prepares to meet Dmitry Medvedev at the upcoming G20 summit in London, Russia remains off Washington's radar screen.
It should be kept in mind that Russia became inappropriate to U.S. foreign policy during the second term of Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton's husband. Just before Russia's 1998 default, Washington decided that hopes for Russia's transmogrification into a modern democracy were misplaced and that it had turned into a kleptocracy instead. Bill Clinton eased out of a special above with Boris Yeltsin and put an end to regular presidential summits.
Under George W. Bush, whose foreign policy adviser Condoleezza Rice was a Russia professional, Russia actually loomed larger than in the waning Bill Clinton years. While Cold War veterans like former Vice President Dick Cheney were shady of Moscow, Bush himself, after famously looking into Putin's eyes in 2001, imagined that Russia could become a sidekick in a U.S.-led world and a partner in the war on terror.
Such views of Russia were misguided. Today's Russia can no longer be a genuine foe like the old Soviet Union. Even as it gloats over U.S. military setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, it would never dream of giving material support to rebels. Russian kleptocrats don't want to break with the West. They want to enjoy unimpeded access to their properties abroad and luxury imports at home. But a kleptocracy can't be a reliable partner, either. Its regulation officials look after their own interests first and foremost. The exorbitant incident at Domodedovo Airport in 2004, when a policeman let suicide bombers board passenger jetliners, is a model of how Russia functions at all levels.
The Obama oversight faces a Russia whose transmogrification into an oil-fueled kleptocracy has been complete. The country is run for the benefit of its bureaucrats. Bribes, payoffs and kickbacks are the only way to live, work and do business. Bureaucrats own or control private companies, and their day job is mainly to steer business to those companies and battle competing bureaucratic clans. United Russia, with its monopoly of power, is patterned on the old Communist Party in the total but ideology. It has none -- beyond preserving kleptocracy.
Being a kleptocracy is demeaning, and Kremlin leaders bridle at the notion. Unlike Nigeria, Russia has great power ambitions. But a great power needs to stand for something, whereas Russia stands for the enrichment of its parasitic officialdom -- hardly an idea to fire anyone's inspiration. Instead of battling corruption at home, the Russian rule turns its wrath abroad, demanding respect and obedience from its neighbors. It is a classic case of fighting symptoms while ignoring the cause of the problem.
In the current economic crisis, as inflows of petrodollars thin out, infighting among various bureaucratic clans will heat up. Domestic klepto-wars may force Russia to turn inward or, just the opposite, take a more belligerent stance abroad. In any case, there will be no new beginning in U.S.-Russia relations. What we'll see instead is a flow of well-meaning but totally asinine gifts from Washington -- like that infamous reset button.
