The majority of the attention this past week directed towards events taking place in the area formerly known as the Soviet Union focussed on Georgia. The success of the so-called “Rose Revolution”, that forced former (Soviet) ForMin Eduard Shevardnadze to relinquish Georgian presidency is still in the euphoria stages, because transfer — dare one say control — of power in the country has not been finalized. Bloodless, yes, planless as well.
The US has as much of an interest in the stability of the area as Russia. Which is why clever headline writers have already punned that Bush has Georgia on his mind. A simple glance at an atlas, a brief look into the past, provides the realization that ethnic tension in the region is unresolved (Chechnya), awareness that Turkey and Armenia are close neighbours, Iran and Iraq not far away. It all serves to underscore that world powers do not want another bloody conflict in the area. Add to this the $1 billion or so that Shevardnadze bilked from the US in foreign aid during his rule — this in addition to other foreign aid monies -, and a peaceful transfer in Tbilisi is what those with some egg on face wish to see.
Otherwise, NATO’s Istanbul summit next June, where the Baltic states are scheduled to be embraced into the fold, might have quite different priorities.
Suleiman the Magnificent, the Sultan who ruled from Baghdad to Buda and Pest, besieging Vienna en route, threatening the European status quo in the process half a millennium ago, would nod his head in agreement — keep the local concerns small, thus under control. Do not let localized flames spark larger conflagrations. Broaden your horizons, keep them confused.
These days it is the people who subsidize projects such as propping up the Shevardnadze regime with their monies, directed there by their elected representatives, who know not where to turn for honest answers.
Ask a simple Canadian taxpayer (lord knows, we are simpletons, because some of us keep on electing people that throw our money around with reckless abandon) if Canadian foreign aid should be sent abroad to prevent biochemical weapons from falling into terrorists’ hands. A safe bet — the plan would meet unqualified approval.
But to send monies earmarked for that purpose to a country with an outdated, corrupt military — would we do that? After all, the trickle-down effect means the Generals get first crack on fund divertion, make decisions on which weapons get destroyed — and without proper documentation, one never knows if the program bore fruit.
Yet, such is the case with Canadian aid being sent to Russia, as part of a deal hammered out last year at the Kananaskis, Alberta G8 Summit. Canada committed there to send $1 billion CAD to Russia over a decade as part of a $20-billion (US) international effort to destroy Russia’s chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
The numbers are the same, the exchange rate of course is not. It still mirrors what the US sent to Georgia to prop up a corrupt regime, also over a similar time period. Should not the rosy revolution warn Canada’s mandarins?
Apparently not. Canada’s Ambassador to Russia, Christopher Westdal, signed a deal last week committing another $33 million CAD to the concept. (This is not the first installment — now $149 million of the $1 billion has been committed.) For what? For building a railway, for heaven’s sake — and only 18 kilometres worth. Even Canada’s union labour could build a railway cheaper.
Although Canada prides itself on having a railroad heritage, this is a case where spikes and sleepers most likely will never be set.
The large pot of loonies is funding a local railway to a chemical weapons destruction site facility, near Shchuchye — 1,600 kilometres southeast of Moscow. (Are we nearing any hotbeds of ethnic conflict yet?) The money will be managed on Chrétienia’s — whoops, — Canada’s behalf by Britain — also a signatory of an agreement to help Russia destroy chemical weapons.
Russia has already reneged on its part. An agreement signed in 1997 — ratifying the Chenical Weapons Convention — gave it 10 years to destroy its stockpile of chemical weapons. To date, less than one per cent of its chemical weapons have been destroyed.
Russian leaders claim that there is no way that they can keep their end of the deal without international help. Westerners concur. Russia’s military is beset, nay plagued, with corruption and disorganization.
Western aid has been held back for this very reason. Even Russia admits this. Last year, Russia’s Audit Chamber issued a report outlining the fact that US$270 million in foreign aid, from Europe and the US, intended to clean up and build safe storage facilities for radioactive waste had simply disappeared. The nuclear time-bombs remain.
In view of this, to quibble over Canada’s latest, $33 million dribble may seem picayune. However, the point remains — aid is being pumped into a bottomless pit, appropriated by apparatchiks, military men, and the problem is not going away.
Count Sergei Witte, Russia’s Minister of Finance during the tsarist industrialization stage (also later responsible for Far Eastern Policy that led to the ill-advised Russo-Japanese war of 1905) is known as the father of Russia’s railroad system. Had you given him the equivalent of $33 million in 19th century roubles you would have seen Moscow linked to Shchuchye — and a kopeck or two in his pocket as well.
This is what troubles a taxpayer. The ideals are all fine, goals are laudable. Funding corrupt military regimes is not a common lament — America has been doing that for decades. Canada, though, keeps on taking a moral stand, not participating militarily in Iraq, yet also pumps money into an equally corrupt regime. Ottawa needs to reassess this strategy.
The most chilling aspect is that these weapons, meant to be destroyed by our foreign aid, will quite likely be surreptitiously sold by the corporals, sergeants, lieutenants of the Russian army to terrorists brethren, so as to improve their own poor wages.
Then the cycle will start anew — Bush, or his successor will have to mount yet another global campaign to remove stockpiles of biochemical weapons. Are we truly doomed to repeat history? Or should we heed Suleiman the Magnificent, and let Tbilisi’s and Moscow’s problems be theirs to resolve. After all, Suleiman is no longer around — we won’t be either, by the time this all comes to a head.
Leader: Railroading loonies to Russia
Arvamus
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