PRESS TV (IRAN)
Guerre froide 2.0
et dégradation des relations
russo-britanniques : Londres en
avant-garde de la politique agressive de
Washington contre Moscou …
Luc Michel
Dimanche 11 février 2018
* Résumé français :
Guerre froide 2.0
et dégradation des relations
russo-britanniques : Londres en
avant-garde de la politique agressive de
Washington contre Moscou …
Les relations se
dégradent entre Londres et Moscou. Pas
une nouveauté puisque les deux pays sont
en froid depuis l’asile accordés dans la
décennie précédente aux opposants russes
(poursuivis pour des délits criminels en
Russie) (“Londongrad”) et aux islamistes
tchétchènes(la version Asie
central-Caucase du “Londonistan”). Le
Brexit, parrainé par Trump, a relancé la
« relation particulière » entre les
« cousins » anglo-saxons (1). Et Londres
se positionne en avant-garde de la
politique agressive anti-russe de
Washington.
Reste que ce qui
est nouveau, c’est le ton. La propagande
agressive grossière, qui était jusqu’ici
la marque des quotidiens britanniques
(presse de caniveau), est aujourd’hui le
ton du gouvernement britannique, comme
le ‘UK State Secretary for Defense’,
Gavin Williamson.
L’affaire est prise
très au sérieux à Moscou. Voir les
officiels de haut rang russes qui lui
ont répondu. Mais surtout la publication
par le ‘Club Valdai’, le Think-Tank de
Poutine, d’une réponse intitulée « Quels
mensonges se dissimulent derrière les
avertissements du Royaume-Uni sur la
Russie ? » (2).
# LUC MICHEL’S
GEOPOLITICAL DAILY/
COLD WAR 2.0 AND DETERIORATION OF
RUSSIAN-BRITISH RELATIONS: LONDON AT THE
FOREFRONT OF WASHINGTON'S AGGRESSIVE
POLICY AGAINST MOSCOW
LUC MICHEL (ЛЮК МИШЕЛЬ) & EODE/
Luc MICHEL pour
EODE/
Quotidien
géopolitique – Geopolitical Daily/
2018 02 08/
Relations are deteriorating between
London and Moscow. Not a novelty since
the two countries are in cold relation
since the asylum granted in the previous
decade to Russian opponents (prosecuted
for criminal offenses in Russia)
(“Londongrad”) and Chechen Islamists
(the Caucasus-Central Asia version of
the “Londonistan”). The Brexit,
sponsored by Trump, revived the "special
relationship" between Anglo-Saxon
"cousins" (1). And London is at the
forefront of Washington's aggressive
anti-Russian policies.
I /
UK’S “WARNINGS ABOUT RUSSIA”:
RUSSIAN HIGH-RANKING OFFICIALS WHO
ANSWERED TO UK STATE SECRETARY FOR
DEFENSE GAVIN WILLIAMSON.
Still, what is new is the tone.
Aggressive propaganda, hitherto the
hallmark of British newspapers (gutter
press), is now the tone of the British
government, like the UK State Secretary
for Defense, Gavin Williamson.
The case is taken very seriously in
Moscow. See the Russian high-ranking
officials who answered him. But
especially the publication by the 'Club
Valdai', Putin's Think-Tank, an answer
entitled "What lies behind the UK’s
warnings about Russia?" (2) ...
The Chairman of the Russian Federation
Council Foreign Affairs Committee
Konstantin Kosachev dismissed the
remarks by the UK State Secretary for
Defense, Gavin Williamson that “Russia
is preparing to destroy the UK's vital
infrastructures on the British Isles.”
Kosachev said (on Tass): "Quite
naturally, a question any Russian
politician - and not only a politician
asks himself in the first place is what
for. Not only what Russia should attack
the UK for, because this is a strictly
rhetorical question. More importantly,
why is Gavin spreading these purported
and scary lies."
First Deputy Chairman of the Russian
Federation Council Defense and Security
Committee Franz Klintsevich noted (on
Tass): "Utter nonsense. Looks like UK
Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said
that under the influence of having just
read Herbert [H.G.] Wells' novel The War
of the Worlds, which describes the
Martian invasion of England. It's a
carbon copy, the only thing that is
missing are the heat rays used by the
aliens to destroy everything around
them. It has been rightly stated that
one should get acquainted with such
books in his or her childhood."
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor
Konashenkov said (on Tass too): "British
Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson in
his fiery crusade for military budget
money appears to have lost his grasp on
reason. His fears about Russia getting
pictures of power plants and studying
the routes of British pipelines are
worthy of a comic plot or a Monty
Python's Flying Circus sketch." He then
added: "What is really stunning is this:
if Williamson in this way hopes to draw
attention to his own personality, he is
not the first one in the defense
secretary's seat who is trying to score
political points by spooking the British
people with horror stories. But if it is
Britain's General Staff that reports
such nonsense to him, then he should
start thinking not about ways of
increasing the defense budget but
checking British military planners for
professional aptitude, with a special
emphasis on medical exams."
II /
DOCUMENT/ VALDAI CLUB:
“WHAT LIES BEHIND THE UK’S WARNINGS
ABOUT RUSSIA?”
(Bebruary 1, 2018)
“If you had spent the past few weeks in
the United Kingdom as a visitor from
outer space, you could have been
forgiven for thinking that Russian
barbarians were at the gates. From land,
sea, and air - we were told by the sort
of people who ought to know - that the
country was at risk from imminent or
long-term Russian attack. Forget about
rising crime, terrorism or even Brexit,
the more urgent threat came came from
Russia, or so members of the defence and
security establishment told us.
“First up was the country’s most senior
military officer, Air Chief Marshal Sir
Stuart Peach. Addressing the Royal
United Services Institutes, one of
London’s leading defence think-tanks in
mid-December, the Chief of Defence Staff
warned of what he said posed a “new risk
to our way of life”- the possibility
that Russian submarines could cut
undersea communications cables, severing
inter-continental data and phone links.
Any disruption, he said, would
"immediately and potentially
catastrophically" hit the economy.
“Next, in a speech at the same
think-tank in mid-January was the head
of the army, Sir Nick Carter, who said
Russia today presented “the most complex
and capable security challenge we have
faced since the Cold War”. Citing
Russian increases in military
capabilities, including a 12-fold
increase in long-range missiles, he
said: “This is not a crisis, or series
of crises, which we face. It is a
strategic challenge. And it requires a
strategic response.”
“Hard on his heels came Sir Michael
Fallon, in his first speech since
resigning as defence secretary, who
warned about Russia’s mastery of cyber.
“We have,” he said, “all the evidence we
need of Putin’s intent to subvert
western democracies, from the
Netherlands to Montenegro, from Germany
to even the United States.”
“But it was Sir Michael’s successor as
defence secretary – in the job for less
than two months, whose intervention
produced some of the most alarmist
headlines. Gavin Williamson used an
interview with the pro-Conservative
paper, the ‘Daily Telegraph’, to warn
that Russia was making efforts to probe
the UK’s cyber defences and had plans to
attack British power stations and grids
in the event of a conflict. Russia’s
tactics, he said, were to create
"domestic and industrial chaos" in the
UK and to "damage its economy, rip its
infrastructure apart, actually cause
thousands and thousands and thousands of
deaths" – then wait for the UK’s
response.
“Williamson’s remarks produced a
dismissive tweet from the Russian
Embassy in London, and a spokesman for
the Russian defence ministry compared
them to a Monty Python sketch. But this
barrage of official UK alarm about
Russia over such a short period poses a
natural question – why?
“Before hazarding some answers, it is
worth observing that the difference in
recent weeks has been in the frequency
of the warnings and their urgency,
rather than in a complete change of
tone. After all, the Prime Minister made
the supposed Russia threat a theme of
her annual foreign affairs speech in
November, and as defence secretary, Sir
Michael Fallon raised regular alerts
about Russia. Still, the virulence of
the language and the urgency of the tone
over recent weeks have been striking –
so what’s up?
“Let’s start with the obvious: money.
Magnifying the Russia threat is a
traditional and easy way for the
military to try to drum up support for
maintaining, or even increasing, defence
spending, at a time when the government
of the day is looking for savings.
“In this case, protecting the military
budget has also become bound up with the
reputation of the new defence secretary.
Gavin Williamson’s appointment was not
without controversy. It was pointed out
at the time that he had no previous
experience of defence or security, had
never served in the military and had
only been appointed because he was seen
as a safe pair of political hands and an
ally of the Prime Minister.
“Williamson may thus feel that he has
something to prove – especially if, as
is said, he also harbours ambitions to
lead the Conservative Party. Posing as a
stout advocaate for the military and the
nation’s defence is a good way to curry
favour both with the party mainstream
and with the top brass.
“But why specifically hype the Russia
threat? Partly because blaming Russia
carries no risk. UK relations with
Russia have long been so bad that even
shouting about new threats is unlikely
to make them worse.
“There is a contrast here with China,
which tends to be treated more
benevolently, despite its activities in
the cyber-sphere. The has allowed
Chinese investment in telecoms and a new
nuclear power station that some other
countries – the US and Australia for
example – would probably have banned.
The UK also sees China as a promising
commercial partner post-Brexit in a way
it does not think of Russia – even
though UK companies have longstanding
links with the Russian commodities
sector and the UK has recently bought
more Russian gas, following problems
with our own North Sea pipeline.
“A further explanation might be that
those sounding the alarm genuinely
believe that a new Cold War is upon us.
As far as the military are concerned,
this is strange, because military people
have generally been less hawkish about
Russia than politicians. They understood
better than the politicians that
post-Soviet Russia was a weak power and
that Russia’s military sector was in
dire need of modernising. Those with
military experience also take, by and
large, a more cautious attitude to armed
conflict, because they know what is
really involved.
“It is unusual, then, for the likes of
Sir Stuart Peach or Sir Nick Carter to
speak so publicly about a threat from a
particular quarter. So while worries
about funding may be a large part of the
explanation, could it perhaps also be
that some of the furore in Washington
about supposed Russian interference in
the Trump election has seeped back to
the UK via intelligence channels? Or, to
make a similar point in a different way,
might there be circles in the UK
government who share the concern of
their counterparts in Washington about a
possible Trump rapprochement with Russia
– and want to stop it before it starts?
“In that event, the warnings about
Russia could be one side of an argument
being conducted on both sides of the
Atlantic about Russia policy, with the
cold warriors wanting to get out their
message loudest and first. The results,
if any, of Boris Johnson’s pre-Christmas
trip to Moscow are hard to divine, but a
case can be made that he and Sergei
Lavrov established a reasonable rapport,
and that Boris – who is at heart a
foreign policy realist, sees benefit in
improving relations with Moscow as
Brexit approaches.
“At which point it might be pertinent to
ask how far all this alarmist talk about
a new Russia threat is really
resonating. And the consoling answer, in
my judgement at least, is not very far.
It is not just Russian officials and
social media users mocking the panic,
but many Britons, too. The warning about
Russians planning to cut undersea cables
was countered by reports that fishing
boats regularly damage cables without
the world coming to an end. And why,
many responded to Sir Nick Carter, was
the UK wanting to equip itself to take
on Russia alone, when it had the might
of the Nato alliance behind it, that
outspent and out-armed Russia many times
over?
“Even top experts have their misgivings.
In a recent talk to another London
think-tank, the former head of MI6, Sir
John Sawers, cast doubt – implicitly –
on the premise of a grave new Russia
menace. In a half-hour presentation
about current threats, his first mention
of Russia came near the end, when he
spoke about the cyber potential of
“Russia and others”. Some Foreign Office
diplomats were said to have condemned
the new defence secretary’s alarmist
tone.
“We will have to wait and see which, if
any, of the explanations for the current
outbreak of Russia warnings from London
is right. But those of us who hope for
better UK-Russia relations have little
choice but to try to ride out the
storm.”
(Sources: Tass, January 26, 2018 –
Valdai Club Website - EODE Think-Tank)
NOTES :
(1) See (in French) on LUC MICHEL’S
GEOPOLITICAL DAILY/
ENCORE ET TOUJOURS
L’IMPERIALISME ANGLO-SAXON
on
http://www.lucmichel.net/2018/01/05/luc-michels-geopolitical-daily-encore-et-toujours-limperialisme-anglo-saxon/
(2) See WHAT LIES BEHIND THE UK’S
WARNINGS ABOUT RUSSIA?
on
http://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/what-lies-behind-the-uk-warnings-about-russia/
Pics :
From the British trash daily tabloids
(gutter press) to the serious weeklies
(like ‘The Economist’) and now to the UK
governement speeches : a delirant
russophobia in the heart of the “new
Cold war 2.0” ...
LUC MICHEL (ЛЮК МИШЕЛЬ) & EODE
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