FACING DOWN THE RUSSIAN BEAR
SUSPICIONS OF CYBER ATTACKS IN AMERICA. ALLEGATIONS OF WAR CRIMES IN SYRIA. CLAIMS OF SHOOTING DOWN THE PASSENGER PLANE MH17 IN UKRAINE ... RUSSIA IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY THREATENING, AND INCREASINGLY FRIGHTENING. FOREIGN EDITOR DAVID PRATT LOOKS AT WHAT
AFEW weeks ago while most of the country was focused on parliamentary elections, Russia’s most popular daily newspaper, Kommersant, broke an altogether different news story. Russian president Vladimir Putin, the paper claimed, is planning a major overhaul of the country’s security services.
In essence, the plan involves merging the foreign intelligence service or SVR – the equivalent of MI6 or the CIA –with the domestic Federal Security Service, or FSB – much the same as MI5 or the FBI – to create a new giant secret service.
Russia watchers point to the fact that this would, in effect, constitute the resurrection of the old Committee for State Security, or as it is better known the world over – the KGB.
If true, Putin’s latest harking back to the “good old days” of Russian strength and superpower status will only add to the perception among many that the Kremlin is laying down yet another foundation for Russia’s new-found assertive global role.
From its military engagement in the Syrian conflict, to alleged involvement in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 – as well as trying to influence the US presidential election through cyber attacks – Russia is rarely out of the news these days.
As the influential US political magazine CounterPunch recently pointed out, “aggressive,” “revanchist” and “swaggering” are just some of the adjectives that leading US and European political figures are routinely inserting before the words “Russia” or “Vladimir Putin” right now. Much of this is a vocabulary not seen or heard since the days of the Cold War. Given such bellicose rhetoric, are we indeed seeing an increasingly rogue and dangerous Kremlin – and if so how much of a threat does Russia pose to the West?
Three issues among many seem to be the most pressing. The first of these is Moscow’s role in the Syrian conflict and in particular the bombing of cities like Aleppo. The second is that familiar old Cold War issue of nuclear weapons and the standoff with Nato. Finally, there is the much more contemporary but equally contentious issue of alleged cyber attacks and claims that the Kremlin is trying to influence the outcome of the forthcoming US presidential election.
By far it is the vexed issue of Syria where tensions are most visible right now. Almost exactly one year on from when Russia entered the war after a request from Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Moscow insists Islamic State (IS) fighters and other extremists are its targets but critics see Russia’s role differently.
Russian pilots are accused of targeting civilians and backing the Syrian regime suspected of using chemical weapons and barrel bombs on its own citizens. The recent bombing of a UN humanitarian convoy has only added to the criticism of Russia’s Syria campaign.
According to a new report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the London-based group that monitors the Syrian civil war, Russia’s military has killed almost 10,000 people, including nearly 4,000 civilians, in Syria over the past year.
“The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights was able to document the death of 9,364 civilians and fighters from the rebel and Islamic factions, Fateh al-Sham Front (formerly the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front) and the ‘Islamic State’ in the past 12 months,” the group wrote on its website on Friday.
Russian airstrikes have killed more civilians (3,804) than members of IS (2,746) or members of rebel and other Islamic groups (2,814), according to SOHR. The civilian death count includes 906 children under the age of 18.
Russia’s increasing military action in Syria, says the US, is forcing moderate elements within the Syrian opposition into the hands of extremists, with Washington threatening to end all co-operation with Russia if the bombing continues.
Boris Johnson, the UK Foreign Secretary, has said that Russia could be guilty of war crimes if it has been involved in the bombing of civilian targets in Syria.
US state department spokesman Mark Toner warned: “What has happened now, with the hitting of the humanitarian convoy and with the subsequent siege on Aleppo, you’ve got a scenario now, a dynamic where, as these moderate opposition forces are under increasing pressure from the regime, that they are driven into the arms of al-Nusra, and they have to fight side by side ... It escalates, and makes more confusing what is already a difficult situation,” Toner added.
Given the current level of tension between Washington and Moscow, some