Same big bad bear
The world expects more from country that gave birth
to Sakharov
June 26, 2003
The Iranian
The Russians know very well that the Islamic Republic is making
a nuclear
bomb. They have sold the mullahs what is needed to acquire such
a weapon.
Amongst the members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, Russia is the
only
country that has not agreed to stop providing nuclear cooperation
to Iran.
In an interview with the BBC's Sir David Frost, Vladimir
Putin although
expressing concerns about the intentions of the Tehran government,
made it
clear that he will not back down from a commitment to continue
helping the
Iranian nuclear program. He said: "We are against the option
of using the
subject of Iran's potential nuclear program as a way of squeezing
Russian
companies out of the Iranian market."
For Mr. Putin the morality
of the
market place overrides any human consideration. If arming a rouge
state with
WMD is going to boost the Russian economy, so be it. Let us not
forget that
twenty percent of Iraq's oil revenue before the fall of Saddam
Hussein went
to the contracts signed with the Russian companies.
One cannot help
thinking that the more things change in Russia, the more
they stay the same. After over a decade since the collapse of the
Soviet
Union, Moscow still clings to an unscrupulous and cynical foreign
policy.
In
the days of running a communist empire it suppressed political
freedom
throughout its domain by pretending to act in the name of the solidarity
of
the masses. Today its heartless foreign policy endangers international
security and subverts the cause of democracy under the pretext
of economic
necessity.
Helping the Islamic Republic to make a bomb is a good
indication that Russia
has joined the free market economy without adhering to those democratic
values without which capitalism is only another distasteful cuisine
on the
materialistic menu.
The mafia too thrives on capitalism without
being bound
by any principles that could come in the way of its money-making
activities.
The world however expects more from the government of the country
that gave
birth to Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov.
Just as Russian dissidents
galvanized world opinion against a repressive dictatorship, now
Iranian
students and intellectuals suffering humiliation, torture and death
in the
dungeons of the clerical regime expect the same human sympathy
from the
international community and their Russian neighbors.
To beef up
the military
machine of the mullahs is to deride at their rightful aspirations.
Russian
economic prosperity cannot be built on the ashes of the Iranian
people‚s
hope for liberty and democracy.The Russian government should keep
in mind that it cannot expect any moral
support from the world public opinion about its unmitigating problems
with
ruthless Chechen rebels while it is providing WMD to a major sponsor
of
global terrorism.
It should end its nuclear cooperation with the
Islamic
Republic immediately or it will be solely responsible for the
hellish consequences of turning the whole world into potential
hostages
of a
fanatical regime. Can the civilized world afford to expose its
cherished
peace and freedom to the whims of such a Russian roulette?
|
