06.03.1997

Thieves fall out

Nato’s onward march is sending seismic tremors throughout the Russian regime, and Russian politics in general. As a reaction to US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s mission and the increasingly arrogant behaviour of Nato, nationalist sentiment is swelling - ‘The enemy is now at the door.’

The loss of the Soviet buffer zone, which stretched from the Urals to Berlin and beyond, has left the Russians feeling vulnerable. National pride has taken a big knock, and in these unstable and insecure conditions Russian chauvinism finds plenty to feed off.

Former Warsaw Pact countries are queuing up to join Nato, with the emerging proto-bourgeoisie eager to join the western club. Bulgaria, traditionally Russia’s oldest and most reliable ally, has formally applied to join. Romania is also desperate to be in the ‘first wave’ of new members. The Ukraine may well apply for membership in the relatively near future.

If these countries sign up, Russia will lose its control over the Black Sea zone, which is of major strategic importance to it.

This adds up to a very alarming picture for the Russian leadership, particularly its military establishment, which has had drummed into it the necessity of learning from Napoleon’s attack on Russia and of the constant threat from German militarism. From the perspective of a Russian general, the spectre of hostile encirclement looks more and more likely.

Boris Berezovsky, a deputy secretary on the security council, had denounced Nato’s “totally aggressive decision with regards to Russia that is also exceptionally dangerous for the west itself”. General Lebed, the former national security adviser, has also warned the west that Russia will not tolerate any further Nato expansionism.

Another consequence has been a further strain in the relationship between the Ukraine and Russia, exacerbated by the comments of the Moscow major, Yuri Luzhkov. In a series of statements he described Sevastopol, the Black Sea fleet base in the Crimea, as a “Russian town” - much to the fury of the Ukrainian president, Leonid Kuchma. The last thing Russian nationalists like Luzhkov want is for the Ukraine to become part of the Nato empire.

The reactionary collapse of the Soviet Union, together with the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact signatories, has only acted to increase the likelihood of inter-imperialist war, not diminish it - as the triumphalist bourgeois press cretinously tried to convince us during 1989-91. When thieves fall out, war and violence is never far away.

Paul Greenaway