What is the intention of 'The Kremlin' ?

In the past few months, Russia is deliberately making calculated moves to supersede Western influence in the matters concerning world community. For instance, Syrian crisis, support for Iran despite US sanctions, defense cooperation with Egypt to mention a few.

In all of the above instances, one thing is common, that they all are Middle Eastern countries who are criticizing western powers in hush voices. US and allies have been dominating the region from a very long time since the disintegration of USSR in 1991. The western influence has more or less been effective in combating the rise of Middle Eastern influence in the world by invoking measures like economical, political and military sanctions, military strikes, invoking civil wars through secretly supporting the rebels to allow for a coup and overthrowing most of the dictators in the region with the help of their respective intelligence agencies. All this has been possible with the consistent support of Israel and Saudi Arabia, the dominant players having a strong political and economical hold in the region. The geographical location of the Middle Eastern region has also been supportive for the Western alliances to pursue their respective goals as it is surrounded by Europe. In-fighting and lack of unity among the region’s countries has been contributing towards their exploitation since the beginning of Western dominance.

Since the peak of Syrian crisis in August 2013 when the chemical weapons attack in Damascus by Bashar Al Assad’s regime invited worldwide criticism, Russia has been strongly supporting and combating threats on Syrian security by making all out efforts to persuade UN Security Council that there is no immediate need to militarily strike Syrian soil without having adequate evidence against Assad’s regime. Russia gathered support of various peace mongering nations to persuade Western alliances diplomatically to give up the idea of strikes and thereby, despite of Israel and Saudi Arabia’s push for strikes, US President suspended the idea of striking Syria. Largely the idea to oppose strike grew within the Western nations, especially in the US when the citizens of US opposed the idea of starting a new war and behaving like a ‘World Policeman’. Whatever the reason may be, but Russia succeeded in its intention to protect its ally (Syria) from the Western influence. By convincing US to suspend the idea of strikes, Russia also hit the ‘bull’s eye’ by disturbing the long time good relations between US and Saudi Arabia which came out open in the recent rejection of a temporary seat of the UN Security Council by Saudi Arabia.

Russia didn’t take rest after the handling of Syrian crisis, but it also went further in helping Iran militarily and negotiating a defense cooperation deal with the nation. Russia decided to sell an improved version of S-300 air defense missiles and strategic help in building a nuclear reactor at Bushehr. Russia also agreed to supply five batteries of S-300VM long range air defense system, also known as Antei-2500 which is more effective in intercepting missiles. It was a clear message to the United States that Russia will not adhere to US sanctions if their economic and political interests lie in a deal with any nation, irrespective of the relations of US with that nation. Russia has also been optimistically supporting Iran in the ongoing talks between P5+Germany and Iran in withdrawing sanctions by striking a deal with Iran. Although, it has not yielded the result yet but both sides have indicated a positive breakthrough in the ongoing talks in Geneva.

Russia recently moved a hand of friendship to Egypt which is striving hard to tackle the civil unrest lying because of the rebellion against Morsy. Russia took advantage of the rift between Cairo and Washington as the United States had withheld military supplies to Cairo, following Morsy’s ouster. Russian warship, VARYAG, the flagship of the Pacific fleet, docked in the port city of Alexandria symbolizes Moscow’s deepening interest in the Mediterranean Sea. Russia’s permanent presence at the port of ‘Tartus’ in Syria has already underscored its intention to implant strategic footprints in the region. Both Russia and Egypt are looking for a military tie-up soon to revive the defense cooperation when USSR had a presence in the region.

The worst blow to the United States was the approval of temporary asylum request by Russia of the NSA whistleblower Mr. Edward Snowden that shocked the whole world over the surveillance programmes creating differences between the western alliance itself. For the first time, Germany, rather the whole European Union criticized and summoned US diplomats over the issue of bugging the EU leaders. It was a clear sign that a hole was created in the relations between US and EU, indirectly by Russia as it was supporting Snowden revelations from the backdoor.

The question arises – Are we really marching in the cold war era of 1960-70s when the influence of USSR was undeniable? The present Russia is expanding its arms either by undermining ‘Western authority’ in the Middle East or by inciting disturbances between the US and EU itself. Whatever the intentions may be, but we surely do understand that Russia cannot compete economically in the present form although its economic growth is in full swing but it still relies on hydrocarbon and mineral sale which do not yield the desired results as per the renowned world economists. The present era is of economical superpowers, and the days of military domination has gone in the wind. World population wants peace with economical independence and the war mongering motives of the ‘wannabe superpowers’ may not succeed due to this concept.

What’s cooking in The White House, Beijing & The Kremlin ?

By the grace of the almighty or by the grace of the Eastern powers, the NSA’s whistleblower Edward Snowden is still alive and very much safe in the Moscow. Although, it is the most widely discussed topic for the news aficionados these days, but the whistleblower himself is hiding from country to country just to ensure that his consistent extradition requests made by the United States cannot be executed by a country.

In a pre-planned move, he flew from the United States to the Hong Kong (on 20^th May), in which he proclaims to have ‘a strong tradition of free speech’ and made some serious allegations against the PRISM project (that costs about $20 million/year) of the National Security Agency of the US. The revelations moved like oxygen in the atmosphere of the intelligence agencies of various rival as well as adherent countries of the United States. Print as well as broadcasting media went berserk over the allegations made by the whistleblower on the United States as well as on the ‘General Communications Headquarters of Britain’. Accordingly, the PRISM project has produced over 77,000 reports and accounts for 14.3% of the normal intelligence reports (1/7^th of total intelligence reports). This project is also a major contributor to Mr. Obama’s daily briefing. Data from various tech giants such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, Skype etc were taken by the NSA officials by intruding straight into their servers, without the consent from these tech companies for incurring the private as well as professional information of the residents as well as non residents of the United States (as per Snowden’s reports). Even the telecom operator of the US - ‘Verizon’ was intruded to obtain the voice calls of the suspects as well as of the innocent peoples, compromising the privacy of the individuals on the name of security.

Let’s not get into the debate of who’s right or who’s wrong, or if it is satisfactory to compromise privacy in the name of security. But let’s take a brief look at what Snowden revealed in the Hong Kong (SAR). His reports were not confined to the United States intrusion in citizen’s privacy, but he also accused the NSA for hacking up the systems of China and other enemy countries of the US, possibly Russia. This gave China an excuse to fire bullet on Snowden’s shoulders and to proclaim that although China is accused of mass hacking or cyber intrusions but he himself is a prey of mass cyber hacking. Probably, Chinese Government Officials were consistently in touch with Mr. Snowden in the Hong Kong (SAR) after his arrival, that’s why even Hong Kong’s treaty with the United States for enemy extradition didn't help the US to arrest it’s so called ‘traitor’ when he flew from the Hong Kong to the Moscow on the Q.T.

‘The Kremlin’ is still considered to have a ‘Cold War’ with ‘The White House’ which is testified after some recent cold shoulder decisions by Russian President Vladimir Putin such as political and military support to Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad over “US & Company’s” support to Syrian rebels. In the case of Edward Snowden also, an official of Russian Human Rights Commission Mikhail Fedotov reported that,’ the case of asylum for Mr. Edward Snowden can be considered by the President if Mr. Snowden files such a request but only on human rights ground’. This came after Snowden’s repeated attempts to pacify countries like Iceland and Ecuador to consider his asylum request with the help of Jullian Assange (WikiLeaks founder). Ecuador had a trade pact with US that were to be renewed by the US Senate in the coming few months, but yesterday Ecuador broke the trade pact with US to thwart ‘blackmail’ over Snowden’s asylum. Iceland’s businessman and a supporter of WikiLeaks has offered an airplane to bring Snowden from the Moscow, but no official confirmation from Govt. of Iceland has been arrived yet. Therefore, it is upon ‘The Kremlin’ to take a decision, whether it wants to make a stand against the US by offering asylum to the whistleblower, which is nothing new for it since the Cuban missile crisis in 1961 or to be like China which is not keen to take a straight step against his long time enemy/newly found friend (after Xi Jinping & Obama’s positive meeting in the US).

The ball is in Russian court as Snowden is currently in Moscow. The coming few days will be crucial for Snowden as well as for the Eastern powers to dilute US hegemony in the current political scenario worldwide.