The Silent War
July 9th 2008 05:46
We all know about Iraq. We all know about Afghanistan. We know that Israel and Palestine have issues and Darfur is the closest thing we have to hell on earth. What you might not realise is that there is a silent war going on as we speak between two old allies-turned foes-turned allies again. And now, it seems, turned foe again as well. I am, of course, referring to the United Kingdom and Russia.
The fact that the UK and Russia are having issues with each other is not so hard to believe. After all, for decades after the alliance of World War II was severed by what Churchill referred to as the ‘Iron Curtain’, the UK provided one of the strongest European counterpoints against the scourge of communism. But that was the time of the Stalin and Khrushchev, when the tactics employed in Soviet expansion were brutal and uncompromising, particularly so soon after the wave of Nazism that predicated a conflict that ravaged the world. Since then the Soviet Union has crumbled, the Berlin Wall has fallen and Russia has risen out of the ashes as a booming economic power.
Corrupt to the core, yes. Booming world power, you bet.
There are many ways to look at how this new conflict between the UK and Russia started. Cultural differences? Maybe. The rise of Russia in the world economy? Could be. To me, it seems like it all comes down to an old favourite of Putin’s Russia: Chechnya. On his ascent to power in early 2000, former Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to solidify his power base by increasing Russian military presence in the disputed region of Chechnya, with results that drew heavy criticism from Putin’s opponents within Russia. Enter Alexander Litvinenko, former senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section of Russia’s secret service, the FSB. Litvinenko was a conspiracy theorist of sorts, although with the state of Putin’s Russia some theories may not be so outlandish after all. He fled Russia after persecution following his accusation that his superiors in the FSB had ordered a political assasination, and subsequently spent his time in the UK levying strong accusations at the Putin regime, accusing them of setting up terrorist attacks to justify renewed hostilities against Chechnya and the assasination of dissidents against the regime, including the high profile killing of rabble-rousing journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2007. Weeks after making his claims about Politkovskaya’s killing, Litvinenko was dead. Poisoned in his London hotel by putting plutonium in his tea. How very James Bond of him. The prime suspect was former FSB agent Andrei Lugovoi, but Lugovoi fled to Russia who in turn refused to cooperate in extraditing Lugovoi back to the UK.
That was the trigger but relations have continued to deteriorate. Britain has expelled Russian diplomats and centres promoting Britain in Russia have been shut down. British MI5 boss Jonathon Evans has accused Russia of spying on the UK and Russia have accused Britain of spy missions in their territories. Cold War relations are seeming to heat up yet again. Just this week Whitehall sources have confirmed that it is their belief that Russian authorities were behind the death of Litvinenko, a claim that can only serve to damage Russia-Britain relations even further.
The spy games will continue tit-for-tat as long as Russia refuses to cooperate and Britain continues its passive aggressive approach to Russia’s stubborn attitude in European engagement. This, like the Cold War before it, is a silent conflict. The people killed have been carefully targetted, and messages of hostility between the two nations have not yet reached fever pitch. But time can only tell how far the two countries will go to get one up on each other.
Let’s face it. When the Russian’s start attacking the British through their tea, as with Litvinenko, it’s only a matter of time before breaking point.
The fact that the UK and Russia are having issues with each other is not so hard to believe. After all, for decades after the alliance of World War II was severed by what Churchill referred to as the ‘Iron Curtain’, the UK provided one of the strongest European counterpoints against the scourge of communism. But that was the time of the Stalin and Khrushchev, when the tactics employed in Soviet expansion were brutal and uncompromising, particularly so soon after the wave of Nazism that predicated a conflict that ravaged the world. Since then the Soviet Union has crumbled, the Berlin Wall has fallen and Russia has risen out of the ashes as a booming economic power.
Corrupt to the core, yes. Booming world power, you bet.
There are many ways to look at how this new conflict between the UK and Russia started. Cultural differences? Maybe. The rise of Russia in the world economy? Could be. To me, it seems like it all comes down to an old favourite of Putin’s Russia: Chechnya. On his ascent to power in early 2000, former Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to solidify his power base by increasing Russian military presence in the disputed region of Chechnya, with results that drew heavy criticism from Putin’s opponents within Russia. Enter Alexander Litvinenko, former senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section of Russia’s secret service, the FSB. Litvinenko was a conspiracy theorist of sorts, although with the state of Putin’s Russia some theories may not be so outlandish after all. He fled Russia after persecution following his accusation that his superiors in the FSB had ordered a political assasination, and subsequently spent his time in the UK levying strong accusations at the Putin regime, accusing them of setting up terrorist attacks to justify renewed hostilities against Chechnya and the assasination of dissidents against the regime, including the high profile killing of rabble-rousing journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2007. Weeks after making his claims about Politkovskaya’s killing, Litvinenko was dead. Poisoned in his London hotel by putting plutonium in his tea. How very James Bond of him. The prime suspect was former FSB agent Andrei Lugovoi, but Lugovoi fled to Russia who in turn refused to cooperate in extraditing Lugovoi back to the UK.
That was the trigger but relations have continued to deteriorate. Britain has expelled Russian diplomats and centres promoting Britain in Russia have been shut down. British MI5 boss Jonathon Evans has accused Russia of spying on the UK and Russia have accused Britain of spy missions in their territories. Cold War relations are seeming to heat up yet again. Just this week Whitehall sources have confirmed that it is their belief that Russian authorities were behind the death of Litvinenko, a claim that can only serve to damage Russia-Britain relations even further.
The spy games will continue tit-for-tat as long as Russia refuses to cooperate and Britain continues its passive aggressive approach to Russia’s stubborn attitude in European engagement. This, like the Cold War before it, is a silent conflict. The people killed have been carefully targetted, and messages of hostility between the two nations have not yet reached fever pitch. But time can only tell how far the two countries will go to get one up on each other.
Let’s face it. When the Russian’s start attacking the British through their tea, as with Litvinenko, it’s only a matter of time before breaking point.
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