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| Russia |
| Russia refuses to send peacekeepers to Iraq |
| 2004-06-28 |
| Russia on Monday excluded the possibility of participating in the peacekeeping forces in Iraq. "We’re too busy helping Iran build their nuclear facilities to spare any other "advisers" at this time." "I do not see any conditions for this," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference in Istanbul after a meeting of the NATO- Russia Council. "We prefer civilian forms of assistance to that country." Like operating Iraq’s oil fields for Saddam. "There are no discussions under way" between Russia and Iraq on military cooperation either, Lavrov said. Something to do with Russia’s fabulous progress in Chchnya, I suppose. But there are talks between Moscow and Baghdad on closer economic cooperation, including on restoring Iraq’s economy, he said. "Money makes the mare go round." He expressed concern over the lack of an agreement on the status of the multinational armed forces between the forces and the Iraqi interim government. This "may create a dangerous vacuum after the handover of sovereignty to Iraq," he said. (Read: "Our customers next door in Iran are getting squirrelly.") "Under a UN Security Council resolution, the multinational forces are responsible for security in close cooperation with the Iraqi government, which must have a voice in deciding how these forces should act," he said. "Just sign here ..." "It is alarming that until now this point in the latest UN Security Council resolution on Iraq had still not taken the form of the legal language of an agreement on the status of the forces," he said. With the handover of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government, this gives rise to "a certain legal vacuum, which is undesirable especially in the current conditions in Iraq." Which they have both passively and actively undermined. Lavrov also said the situation in Iraq is becoming increasingly insecure. Those dratted Iranian "We don’t believe that use of force can solve the problem," he said. "A political dialogue is needed. The organization of a comprehensive all-Iraq political dialogue with the participation of all political forces, including opposition forces as well, is the way to achieve security." Ah yes, the familiar "political dialogue" routine. It’s working rather well in Chechnya, isn’t it? He said the Iraqi interim government is organizing a national conference next month and has sent invitations to opposition groups. "We believe that all major opposition groups should be invited," he said, adding that Russia supports the Iraqi government’s efforts for national unification. (Read: "We want to get our fingers back into the pie.") He also called for "Iraq’s neighbors [to] take part in subsequent steps." Especially Iran. |
| Posted by:Zenster |
| #9 RWV: I'm not sure what expertise they would bring to the table. The Russians are well-known for selling weapons to the enemy in Chechnya and for dying by the dozens in individual enemy attacks. If deployed in Iraq, they'd be known as "negative resources" - i.e. "resources" that lead to more coalition casualties. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-06-28 5:34:59 PM |
| #8 I'm not sure what expertise they would bring to the table. I'm sure they could show us more than a few rather novel "field interrogation" techniques. After a few rounds with some Russian spooks, those Iraqis would beg for a return to the panties. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-06-28 5:31:34 PM |
| #7 I guess they don't feel the need to put in a surprise appearance like they did in Kosovo. I suspect that Russian troops would be about as welcome although not as useful as Turkish ones. Given their track record of retreat from Afghanistan and the inability to suppress the Chechens. I'm not sure what expertise they would bring to the table. |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-06-28 5:11:55 PM |
| #6 "I come in Peace." |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-06-28 5:01:48 PM |
| #5 When did Russia become a member of NATO? |
| Posted by: ed 2004-06-28 5:00:47 PM |
| #4 I agree. If they accepted they might actually show up and that could be a problem. |
| Posted by: Michael 2004-06-28 4:33:32 PM |
| #3 Given their lousy combat record, it's not what I would call a big loss. Check out Diggs's (at 4 Mile Creek) account of the initial Russian charge into Grozny in 1994: The first unit to penetrate to the city center was the 1st battalion of the 131st "Maikop" Brigade, the latter composed of some 1,000 soldiers (120 armored vehicles and 26 tanks) ... Russian forces initially met no resistance when they entered the city at noon on 31 December. They drove their vehicles straight to the city center, dismounted, and took up positions inside the train station. Other elements remained parked along a side street as a reserve force. Sixty hours later, the unit had been wiped out. "By 3 January 1995, the brigade had lost nearly 800 men, 20 of 26 tanks, and 102 of 120 armored vehicles." It had been surrounded and despite urgent pleas for relief, been utterly destroyed. "Its commander, Colonel Ivan Savin and almost 1000 officers and men died and 74 were taken prisoners. As for the two Spetsnaz groups south of the city, they surrendered to the Chechens after having tried to survive without food for several days," one historian observed. A Russian soldier described what he saw as they approached the train station around where the "Maikop" Brigade had been. En route to the Central Train Station, the streets are crammed with burnt and mangled hulks of "armor" and strewn with dead bodies. The bodies of our Slavic brothers, all that's left of the Mikop Brigade, the one that "spooks" burnt and wiped out on the New Year's Eve 95-96. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-06-28 4:05:58 PM |
| #2 Lavrov also said the situation in Iraq is becoming increasingly insecure. "We don’t believe that use of force can solve the problem," he said. "A political dialogue is needed. The organization of a comprehensive all-Iraq political dialogue with the participation of all political forces, including opposition forces as well, is the way to achieve security." Good. They can try that with Chechnya then, I assume? |
| Posted by: jules 187 2004-06-28 4:01:04 PM |
| #1 Russian........PEACEKEEPERS?!?! Have the Russkies EVER been in a peacekeeping operation? |
| Posted by: Brett_the_Quarkian 2004-06-28 3:50:40 PM |