September 11, 2013

Russia Picks Up Kerry's Fumble

By Michael Curtis
Is the world today experiencing a reversal of the history of the international behavior of the Great Powers preceding World War II? On August 23, 1939 Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop, foreign ministers of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a secret non-aggression pact. The cynical Stalin, aware of the indecisiveness of the Western democracies in response to the increasing aggressiveness of Hitler, had already in his speech to the 18th Communist Party Congress on March 10, 1939 explained that the Soviet Union would "avoid pulling other nation's (United Kingdom and France) chestnuts out of the fire." The result was further Nazi aggression and World War II. Today Russia has, for its own national interests in a somewhat cynical manner, appeared to be disobeying Stalin's injunction with the proposal by foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on September 9 that Syria should place its chemical weapons under international control for subsequent dismantling. By its proposal...(Read Full Article)