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Russian Cooperation on Afghanistan Makes It a Very Unusual “Enemy”

Ross Kaminsky doesn’t like Russia: Putin is an unreformed CIA Cold Warrior. As long as he remains in power, Russia should be considered an enemy of the US. Presumably, Kaminsky meant to say KGB here, but none of this makes any sense anyway. As many critics of the “reset” like to point out, and as […]

Ross Kaminsky doesn’t like Russia:

Putin is an unreformed CIA Cold Warrior. As long as he remains in power, Russia should be considered an enemy of the US.

Presumably, Kaminsky meant to say KGB here, but none of this makes any sense anyway. As many critics of the “reset” like to point out, and as Kaminsky acknowledges later, Russia has been supportive of the U.S. war in Afghanistan because it has an interest in limiting the influence of Islamism in Central Asia. They seem to think that the existence of shared interests between the U.S. and Russia is proof that the “reset” is a failure, when it actually points to the reasons why cooperation with Russia is in the American interest. So this has been something that the U.S. and Russia have had in common. Indeed, the governments of Central Asia have also had an interest in the same thing to one degree or another. This is why it has been one of the successes of current Russia policy to receive Russian cooperation in supplying the war effort in Afghanistan as supply lines through Pakistan have become less reliable. If Russia is still an enemy in spite of supporting a U.S. war effort, there doesn’t seem to be any way for Russia not to be considered an enemy by some Americans.

For the same reason, Russia is not interested in an earlier U.S. withdrawal. Moscow’s criticism of the 2014 withdrawal date happens to put many anti-Russian American hawks on the same side of the Afghanistan withdrawal question as the Russian government. At the same time, we shouldn’t exaggerate Russian support for a long-term U.S. presence in Central Asia. That is something Russia has clearly opposed. That means that the Russian position on a U.S. military presence in the region changes depending on circumstances: the U.S. shouldn’t leave too quickly before the Afghan government can defend itself, but our forces definitely must not stay in the region after that point. As it happens, Moscow and these anti-Russian hawks are both wrong. The U.S. should proceed with its plan to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014 because it is in the American interest to do so. Kaminsky seems to agree.

As for the charge of “hypocrisy,” I suppose one could try to find some sort of inconsistency between the Russian position on the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and their positions on Western efforts to pressure Iran and Syria over the nuclear issue and Syria’s civil war respectively. However, in each case Russia seems to be taking positions consistent with the Kremlin’s perception of Russian national interests. Russia generally opposes interference in the internal affairs of states, especially when those states happen to be their clients, and it has no interest in Western military attacks on Syria or Iran.

On a related note, Richard Weitz has written a short report on some interesting recent discoveries from the Soviet archives, some of which touch on the Soviet occupation of and withdrawal from Afghanistan.

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