Russia To Open Airspace To U.S. For Afghan War
Lee, Minhwan
July 4, 2009
Pg. 1
Russia To Open Airspace To U.S. For Afghan War
By Peter Baker
MOSCOW ? The Russian government has agreed to let American troops and
weapons bound for Afghanistan fly over Russian territory, officials on both
sides said Friday. The arrangement will provide an important new corridor
for the United States military as it escalates efforts to win the eight-year
war.
The agreement, to be announced when President Obama visits here on Monday
and Tuesday, represents one of the most concrete achievements in the
administration��s effort to ease relations with Russia after years of
tension. But the two sides failed to make a trade deal or resolve
differences over missile defense, and are struggling to draft a preliminary
nuclear arms deal.
The blend of success and stalemate leading to Mr. Obama��s visit suggests
that it is easier to talk about a ��reset�� button than to press it. The
promise of a new era of cooperation was always predicated on the tenuous
notion that a change of tone and a shift in emphasis might be enough to
bridge deep divisions. But even with both sides eager for warmer ties, the
issues that have torn Washington and Moscow apart did not go away with the
transition at the White House.
Mr. Obama is less enthusiastic than President George W. Bush was about an
antimissile system in Eastern Europe or NATO membership for Ukraine and
Georgia, but has not abandoned either goal, to the consternation of the
Kremlin. Despite American pressure, Moscow has not yielded in its
confrontation with Georgia a year after their brief war.
So Mr. Obama��s first visit here as president will be a test of his foreign
policy. American officials said that the larger message was that if the
Russians did not take his open hand, he would move on to other priorities.
But Mr. Obama faces a reservoir of resentment among Russians who believe
that the United States has rarely followed through on such gestures. ��There��s a lot of suspicion that this has been talk, talk, talk ? let��s see some
real action,�� said Vladimir Pozner, a state television talk show host. ��At
this point, there is a little bit of hope and a lot of distrust.��
Richard R. Burt, a former American arms control negotiator and a member of a
Russian-American group, Global Zero, that is pushing for nuclear
disarmament, said Mr. Obama must overcome that suspicion. ��I just get the
sense that the Russians are kind of grumpy, so there��s still some sharpness
on the Russian side, despite pushing the reset button,�� he said.
At the same time, Mr. Obama faces pressure not to go soft on Russia. He
sounded a tough note this week, saying Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin
still ��has one foot in the old ways.�� He is also sending Vice President
Joseph R. Biden Jr. to Georgia and Ukraine after the summit meeting to show
he will not abandon them.
��We��re not going to reassure or give or trade anything with the Russians
regarding NATO expansion or missile defense,�� said Michael McFaul, the
president��s top adviser on Russia.
Georgian officials visiting Washington last week said that they had faith in
the administration, but they expressed skepticism about a real change in
relations. Russia maintains as many as 15,000 troops in two breakaway
Georgian republics, despite a cease-fire agreement, and last month it used
its veto to end the United Nations observer mission in one of them. Both
Russia and NATO recently conducted war games in the region.
��Attempts by American officials to talk with them in a civilized manner are
perceived as weakness,�� Grigol Vashadze, Georgia��s foreign minister, said,
comparing Mr. Putin to a bandit. ��Of course you can talk with him. But in
the end, you know the bandit will end up kicking you and taking your
wallet.��
Looking for a breakthrough for his visit, Mr. Obama tried to cut a deal to
finally admit Russia into the World Trade Organization. But days after Mr.
Obama��s advisers visited Russia in June to discuss the idea, Mr. Putin
unexpectedly suspended Moscow��s membership bid, dashing hopes for an
announcement next week.
Russian officials said they were showing good faith, pointing to their
suspension of the delivery of an S-300 air defense system to Iran. ��In
Moscow and in Washington, people have been known to lose opportunities,��
said Mikhail V. Margelov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of
Russia��s upper house of Parliament. ��We have to hope that this time we won��t lose the opportunity.��
The new airspace agreement represents an important step. Until now, Russia
has restricted use of its territory for the Afghan war to railroad shipments
of nonlethal supplies. Under the new arrangement, officials said, planes
carrying lethal equipment and troops will be allowed to make as many as 10
flights a day, or thousands a year over Russia.
The agreement was a priority for Mr. Obama, who has ordered 21,000 more
American troops to Afghanistan. Supply routes through Pakistan have been
troubled by that nation��s increasing volatility. Uzbekistan evicted
American troops from a base in 2005, and Kyrgyzstan threatened to do the
same, until American negotiators persuaded it to reverse itself, in a deal
that increases the rent.
But with Mr. Obama about to depart for Moscow, negotiators were still
hashing out a preliminary agreement on nuclear arms cuts to announce along
with President Dmitri A. Medvedev. The agreement would lay out parameters of
a treaty to be drafted by the end of the year to replace the expiring cold
war Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
Negotiators are talking about setting a range of perhaps 1,500 to 1,700
warheads (down from 2,200 now allowed under treaty) and 500 to 1,100
delivery vehicles (down from 1,600 currently allowed). But they have not
settled on the numbers, and Russia wants to link the issue to missile
defense.
The two sides have agreed to create a new standing commission with subgroups
on issues like climate change to work between presidential meetings. The
Obama team at first proposed a new version of a commission in the 1990s
named for Vice President Al Gore and Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin.
But the Russians refused to pair Mr. Putin with Mr. Biden. ��Putin��s not a
vice president,�� an American official quoted the Russians as saying.
��This is like a midsemester report card,�� said Sarah E. Mendelson, a
scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington,
who is organizing a conference on civil society here that Mr. Obama and
perhaps Mr. Medvedev will attend. ��It��s not looking like an A, but it��s
not a D either.��