WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cast doubt Thursday on whether Russia, "increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad," will continue to be brought into the global economic fold.
In excerpts of a speech due for delivery later Thursday, Rice said that because of its August 7 invasion of Georgia and other behavior, "Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) is now in question.
"And so too is its attempt to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development," she said according to excerpts released by the State Department ahead of her speech to the transatlantic German Marshall Fund.
No concrete retaliatory measures appeared in the excerpts. US officials have said Washington is reviewing "other options," beyond its suspension of civilian nuclear and military cooperation with Russia.
Rice appeared to underscore a State Department view that President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, though popular for being assertive, might later suffer politically for the economic fallout of their decisions.
"Our strategic goal now is to make it clear to Russia's leaders that their choices are putting Russia on a one-way path to self-imposed isolation and international irrelevance," Rice said.
"To reach its full potential, Russia needs to be fully integrated into the international political and economic order," or it could end up just being a world energy supplier, Rice said.
Rice's spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that the secretary of state used the telephone earlier Thursday to brief US allies and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about her speech.
Without giving much detail, he said, Rice told Lavrov she would talk "about Russia and Russia's place in the international system."
The Russian government appeared ready to shrug off any consequences.
"In the short term, without the WTO, we will not die and might even gain something," Maxim Medvedkov, the economy ministry's top official for trade talks, said in an interview with the pro-Kremlin daily Izvestia.
With US-EU cooperation, Rice said Russia's leaders will fail to "accomplish their primary war aim of removing Georgia's government." Rice earlier this month announced one billion dollars in economic and other aid for Georgia.
Rice, an academic who specialized in Russia and the former Soviet Union, said that Russian actions toward Georgia fit into "a worsening pattern of behavior over several years."
She cited Russia's "use of oil and gas as a political weapon, its unilateral suspension of the CFE (Conventional Forces in Europe) Treaty, its threat to target peaceful nations with nuclear weapons, its arms sales to states and groups that threaten international security," allged rights abuses at home.
"The picture emerging from this pattern of behavior is that of a Russia increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad," Rice said.
She said Russia's "attack on Georgia has crystallized the course that Russia's leaders are taking -- and brought us to a critical moment for Russia and the world."
Rice said Russia was finding an excuse for its behavior in blaming NATO's eastward expansion to include former soviet territory. Washington has supported efforts by Georgia and Ukraine to join the western alliance.
Whatever differences exists between the two governments, Rice said, Washington will continue to sponsor student, academic and other exchanges between the two societies.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
