Paul Goble
Staunton,
May 30 – In the not so distant past, the United States government would have
taken the lead in exposing Russian threats to the West; but now, with Washington
pulling back from that role, other countries and particularly those most
directly exposed are filling the vacuum in various ways.
Poland
and the Baltic countries, all of whom are in NATO, have come to play a leading
role in this regard not only warning the West about what Putin is up to but
hosting international conferences and preparing well-documented reports. But
now countries even more exposed because they aren’t under the security umbrella
of the Western alliance are doing the same.
Now,
Ukraine is joining this group having prepared and distributed to the alliance
and its members at a meeting in Tbilisi last week an analytic study “about the
links of the Russian Federation with terrorist organizations in the Middle East
and in Central Asia” (interfax.com.ua/news/general/424584.html).
The
report details how Moscow communicates with these groups, provides support and
coordinates their actions with those of the Russian government and security services.
During
the Cold War, the West relied upon and benefitted from studies prepared by
those who had fled the communist regimes Moscow had imposed in the USSR and in
Eastern Europe. Now, these countries are independent, but the expertise about
Russian behavior found in them is no less valuable.
They
deserve the closest attention and where possible support.
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