Russian Envoy Says Obama’s
Extremism Summit a “Mess”
By Colum Lynch
February 20, 2015 "ICH"
- "FP"
- Despite bitter differences over the fate
of Syria and Ukraine, the United States and
Russia still agree on one thing: the need to
confront violent Islamic extremists from
North Africa to the Middle East. But forging
a coordinated strategy for combating the
scourge has been complicated by the
deteriorating state of relations between the
Cold War superpowers.
With foreign dignitaries gathered in
Washington for President Barack Obama’s
conference on extremism, Russia’s U.N.
envoy, Vitaly Churkin, denounced what he
perceived as the latest American slights
against Russia. He accused the United States
of failing to seek Moscow and other
capitals’ views on the event’s agenda, and
said it snubbed Russia’s close allies,
including Serbia, which was not invited to
the conference.
“The United States believes in its
exceptionalism and it has to say at every
corner that the United States is going to
lead,” Churkin said. “Fine, I’m prepared to
listen to those statements if they want to
position themselves this way.… What the
hell.”
He added: “But they should not proceed from
this premise in their relations with Russia
and China, really, because they should take
advantage of our willingness to cooperate.”
The Russian diplomat also offered a
not-so-subtle warning that Russia’s
cooperation on matters of vital importance
to Washington, like the Iranian nuclear
negotiations, should not be taken for
granted. “Russia is a very responsible
member” of the international community, said
Churkin, noting that Moscow had worked very
hard to have the Iranian nuclear talks
succeed. “It would not take much for Russia
to do some mischief in those talks, to make
agreement even more difficult.”
Speaking Wednesday night on a panel on the
state of U.S.-Russian relations at the
Harvard Club in midtown Manhattan, Churkin
predicted that the American conference would
dissolve into a “mess.”
His remarks at the panel discussion — which
was moderated by former Serbian Foreign
Minister Vuk Jeremic, and included Columbia
University economist Jeffrey Sachs, former
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and
former German economy and defense minister
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg — underscored the
strength of official Russian resentment
against the United States.
Churkin bridled at what he characterized as
American moralizing about Russian conduct in
the world. It’s very hard, he said, to
engage in discussions of moral equivalence
with Washington “because [with] the United
States, of course, you always have the moral
superiority.”
A week ago, Russia championed the passage of
a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at
helping to strangle the ability of the
Islamic State and al Qaeda to raise money
through the sale of oil, gas, and
antiquities and the kidnapping of hostages.
Following the vote, Samantha Power, the U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations, voiced
strong U.S. support for the resolution in
remarks to the council. But she made no
mention of Moscow’s contribution, and
instead took a swipe at Russia and China for
blocking an earlier resolution that would
have subjected Syrian leaders to the
International Criminal Court.
Churkin accused the United States of pushing
the United Nations to the sidelines, saying
the international body should be the one
that is leading in countering extremism.
America’s insistence on staking out a
leadership role in the fight against
terrorism would only embolden jihadis to
take up the fight, Churkin said. It will
“attract the extremists, you know, to fight
that American-led coalition,” he said.
He also complained that while the Obama
administration claims to be launching a
broad international fight against
extremists, it “did not consult us” about
the substance of the meeting. “Originally,
they did not even invite us,” Churkin said.
He lambasted the White House for inviting
envoys from the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe to the
counter-extremist event but ignoring Serbia,
which currently chairs the group. Meanwhile,
he said, Kosovo was asked to participate,
even though it is not a member of the U.N.
And though Russia is eager to work with the
United States on battling extremism, Churkin
had low expectations on what the White House
conference would yield. “As far as I’m
concerned, it’s going to produce a mess,” he
said.
The U.S. mission to the United Nations and
the State Department did not respond to
requests for comment on Churkin’s remarks.
The United States did invite a delegation
from Russia, which was headed by Moscow’s
top spy, Alexander Bortnikov, the director
of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB),
Russia’s modern-day KGB.
The three-day meeting began Tuesday with a
focus on the domestic threat of extremism in
the United States, and shifted on Thursday
to the international effort to combat
terrorism. Speaking Thursday morning at the
State Department before representatives of
more than 60 countries, President Obama
painted a grim portrait of a world buffeted
by terrorism.
“As we speak, ISIL is terrorizing the people
of Syria and Iraq and engaging in
unspeakable cruelty,” he said, using an
acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and
the Levant.
He said extremists linked to the Islamic
State “murdered Egyptians in the Sinai
Peninsula, and their slaughter of Egyptian
Christians in Libya has shocked the world.
Beyond the region, we have seen deadly
attacks in Ottawa, Sydney, Paris, and now
Copenhagen.”
Obama pressed the delegates, who were joined
by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to
return to the U.N. General Assembly next
September to “take concrete steps …
together” to tackle terrorism. “We are all
in the same boat, and we have to help each
other.”
Churkin said the “possibility” of Russia and
the United States “working together is out
there.” But, he said, “We need to overcome
this crisis” in relations and “we need to
learn some lesson[s] and we need to start
with a new beginning.”
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