At stake is access to oil as

that resource grows ever

more scarce and expensive

and how a major power con-

ducts itself in our newly

interdependent world, con-

duct that should be based

on accommodation and con-

sensus, not on brute force.

Putin’s ImperialDesigns Are Reminiscent of Stalin’s

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI was national security adviser to US President Jimmy Carter.

He spoke with NPQ shortly after Russian troops invaded Georgia.

NPQ | What is the world to make of Russia’s invasion of Georgia?

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI | Fundamentally at stake is what kind of role

Russia will play in the new international system. Unfortunately, (Russian Prime

Minister Vladimir) Putin is putting Russia on a course that is ominously similar to

Stalin’s and Hitler’s in the late 1930s. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has cor-

rectly drawn an analogy between Putin’s “justification” for dismembering Georgia—

because of the Russians in South Ossetia—to Hitler’s tactics vis-a-vis Czechoslovakia

to “free” the Sudeten Deutsch.

Even more ominous is the analogy of what Putin is doing vis-a-vis Georgia to what

Stalin did vis-a-vis Finland: subverting by use of force the sovereignty of a small dem-

ocratic neighbor. In effect, morally and strategically, Georgia is the Finland of our day.

The question the international community now confronts is how to respond to a

Russia that engages in the blatant use of force with larger imperial designs in mind:

to reintegrate the former Soviet space under the Kremlin’s control and to cut Western

access to the Caspian Sea and Central Asia by gaining control over the Baku/Ceyhan

pipeline that runs through Georgia.

In brief, the stakes are very significant. At stake is access to oil as that resource

grows ever more scarce and expensive and how a major power conducts itself in our

newly interdependent world, conduct that should be based on accommodation and

consensus, not on brute force.

If Georgia is subverted, not only will the West be cut off from the Caspian Sea and

Central Asia. We can logically anticipate that Putin, if not resisted, will use the same

tactics toward the Ukraine. Putin has already made public threats against Ukraine.

NPQ | What, if anything, can the West do to contain this revived

Russian behavior?

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BRZEZINSKI | Not only the West, but the rest of the international community,

must make it clear that this kind of behavior will result in ostracism and economic and

financial penalties. Ultimately, if Russia continues on this course, it must face isolation

in the international community—a longer range risk to its own well being.

The United States, particularly, shoulders the major burden of mobilizing a col-

lective international response. This invasion of Georgia by Russia is a very sad com-

mentary on eight years of self-delusion in the White House regarding Putin and his

regime.Two memorable comments stand out. First, when Bush first met Putin, Bush

said he looked into Putin’s soul and could trust him. Second, not long ago, (Secretary

of State) Condoleezza Rice claimed that American relations with Russia have never

been better in history!

If a Russia, which misjudges

its power and its capacities,

embarks now on a blatantly

nationalistic and imperialis-

tic course, we will all suffer.

NPQ | John McCain has already suggested that Russia be expelled from the G8.

Is that something you would contemplate?

BRZEZINSKI | The G8 is an impotent fiction anyway. But it has to be much

more than that. It has to be a concerted effort on all levels—at the United Nations,

in the Atlantic Council, in the EU or in NATO, in consultation with the Japanese, the

Chinese and others—to convey to Russia that, whatever grievances it may have, it

cannot resolve them by a deliberate policy of dismembering an adjoining state and

trying to obtain political domination over it.

NPQ | Is the West obliged to help Georgia resist the Russian attack with

some kind of military support?

BRZEZINSKI | The question is not what obligation the West may have at the

moment.The question is about our longer term interest. If a Russia, which misjudges

its power and its capacities, embarks now on a blatantly nationalistic and imperialis-

tic course, we will all suffer.

Therefore, it is all the more important that Russia be stopped now by mobilizing

a concerted, global effort to oppose and condemn the Russian invasion. Ultimately,

that could lead to economic and financial sanctions, though one would hope that other

Russian leaders, including its business elite, will have cooler heads and be more aware

of Russia’s own vulnerabilities. Russia is not ready to sustain a new Cold War.

NPQ | Should the Atlantic alliance urgently induct Georgia into NATO as

one response?

BRZEZINSKI | The West desisted from extending the NATO “membership

action plan” to Georgia—a preparatory stage for becoming a member—out of def-

erence to Russian objections. It is now clear that the deference shown to Putin, in the

face of his obvious ambitions, has been counterproductive. In view of what has hap-

pened, NATO ought to extend the membership action plan to Georgia, therefore

reinforcing the commitment NATO made in Bucharest last (spring) to the effect that

NATO intends, at some future point, to include Georgia.

NPQ | You haven’t mentioned Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president,

once, but only Putin. Does Medvedev have any function in this?

BRZEZINSKI | As much to do with it as the formal head of state of the Soviet

Union in 1950 had to do with the running of the Soviet government. Does anyone

remember his name? But the real ruler of the Soviet Union had a name that most still

remember—and it rhymes with Putin.

s

The real ruler of the Soviet

Union had a name that

most still remember—

and it rhymes with Putin.

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