Russia Was Right To Resist Zimbabwe Sanctions!
Have I been completely missing something or has everyone lost their minds regarding this whole Zimbabwe sanctions situation?
Russia and China resisted putting on sanctions on Mugabe and now Britain and the US have been openly questioning Russia’s fitness to belong to the G8. Normally level-headed commentators have been feverishly proclaiming their disappointment in Russian collusion with dictators.
My first thought, however, was that the situation today in Zimbabwe is reminiscent of 1993/1996 Russia — violence to the opposition (Yeltsin’s bombing of the White House); massive voting fraud (1996 election); hyperinflation — or any number of contemporary Central Asian states. None of these have had sanctions imposed on them.
In the following rant, which reflects solely the ill-considered opinions of its author, allow me to introduce some reality into this moralistic, anthropomorphic hysteria:
1. The UN security council is a forum for international law and diplomacy, not a morality police. It is not the business of the members to tell other countries what political system they ought to choose.
2. Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe has indulged in political abuses but it has not killed, tortured or imprisoned any more people than has China, Morocco, Congo, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Nepal or [insert authoritarian developing country here].
3. The UN Security Council is not designed to impose sanctions on states that rig elections. The vast majority of countries in the world rig their elections; others, like practically every Gulf and Central Asian state, don’t even bother to hold elections. Many more others suffer from hyperinflation, violent repression of the opposition and economic collapse.
4. Sanctions almost never work anyway.
5. Countries aren’t people. They aren’t good or bad, and they don’t have feelings or morals. They are entities with interests. Condemning Russia for the Zimbabwe sanctions on grounds of morality is childish and dangerous.
OK, rant over.
PS. A very interesting part of the whole incident has been the role played by the Russian media. There has been a lot of very robust criticism of the government in the newspapers. That will be the subject of the next post.
Goodnight!
July 15th, 2008 at 5:43 am
bloody idiot , go hang , son of a bloody bitch. GOD will punish you all. Spineless mother fuckers.To hell with you all.We will sort out the dictator all by ourselves.Forget that little thabo idiot mbeki, swine.bloody hell .To hell with the stupid russians, those yellow chinese lizards, those libyan jackals, those south african maggots.to hell with robert mugabe and his looneys. A BIG FUCK YOU ALL
July 15th, 2008 at 5:45 am
HTHGH
July 18th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
http://blog.alanalexandroff.com/?p=80
July 19th, 2008 at 10:24 am
[…] An indignant analyst writing on a blog devoted to Russian foreign policy issues titled his post Russia was right to resist Zimbabwe sanctions! […]
August 4th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
To Sonny Okusa there’s no need to be racist. Just to let you know Mugabe isnt technically a dictator. He had to be voted into power and he did this by threatening his opponents and their supporters. Look it easy enough to criticize Russia and China but their choice to veto UN sanctions is exactly that: Their Choice. If you dont like it than say something more intelligent than racist comments.
But the fact is that sanctions will not help the situation and in fact target the common person. This increases poverty which in turn can lead to greater violence as well as other criminal activities. Besides, Mugabe and his opponents -if what i read is true- are undergoing negotiations.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Just a minor correction, but point 3 is wrong. There have only been 30 documented instances of hyperinflation in recorded history, and Zimbabwe is the first country to experience hyperinflation in the 21st century.