{"id":375,"date":"2008-08-25T13:01:27","date_gmt":"2008-08-25T09:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=375"},"modified":"2008-08-25T13:03:44","modified_gmt":"2008-08-25T09:03:44","slug":"simon-jenkins-on-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/375\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Jenkins on Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simon Jenkins has written a rather rambling article<\/a> in The Times<\/em> in which he warns that the western leaders, in their dealings with Russia, are in danger of stumbling into a world war.\u00a0 Personally, I don’t find it a persuasive argument, especially as he seems unable to make up his mind on one of the key points:<\/p>\n

\n

There is no strategic justification for siting American missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. It is nothing but right-wing provocation. Nato\u2019s welcome to Georgia and Ukraine, for no good reason but at risk of having to come to their aid, has served only to incite Georgia to realise that risk while also infuriating Moscow.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Western strategy is dealing with a resurgent, rich and potent Russia. It has played fast and loose with Moscow\u2019s age-old sensitivity and forgotten the message of George Kennan, the American statesman: that Russia must be understood and contained rather than confronted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So which is it?\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Russia “must” be contained then American missile defence systems in Poland and the Czech Republic\u00a0and Nato membership of Georgia and Ukraine would indicate that Kennan’s message\u00a0has not been forgotten.\u00a0 On the\u00a0other hand, if\u00a0the missile defence system\u00a0is intended to intercept Iranian missiles, then they\u00a0do not represent\u00a0“right-wing provocation” of Russia. He can’t have it both ways.<\/p>\n

And as an aside, is there any justification for Russia’s “age-old sensitivity”?\u00a0 I understand that they suffered invasions from the Mongols, Napolean, and Hitler but they are far from unique in that respect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Simon Jenkins has written a rather rambling article in The Times in which he warns that the western leaders, in their dealings with Russia, are in danger of stumbling into a world war.\u00a0 Personally, I don’t find it a persuasive … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,40],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}