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Inside the USSR: Facing Realities
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19070 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1991 |
2,758 Words |
| Author
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Andrei Kozyrev
Andrei Kozyrev is foreign minister of the Republic of Russia
and writes frequently on international affairs. |
Only a year ago, the very idea of a unified Germany seemed seditious to many people in the USSR. Early on, Moscow rejected the idea of Germany joining NATO, saying that it was absolutely impossible and would undermine the principles of Soviet and world international security.
Now it is all a matter of the past. Moreover, the Western community has become stronger, whereas the East European socialist community has ceased to exist. Soviet and Warsaw Treaty Organization armed forces are to equal levels of NATO, according to the new Paris agreement. Soviets, however, do not regard all this as a dangerous upsetting of the military-strategic balance. On the contrary, they are accepting congratulations for taking an important step toward overcoming the division of Europe, a major step toward ending the Cold War.
Foreign policy has been made more realistic, responsible, and predictable, not only by the consistency and persistence of the West in defending freedom, but by the democratic changes taking place in the Soviet Union. The fact that the Soviet Union's new foreign policy takes into consideration the realities of the present-day world makes it more attractive to the people and governments of other countries.
From the "newspeak" of barracklike socialism in which even the word détente was saturated with the poison of "unremitting ideological struggle," Soviet leaders have started to use phraseology more familiar and coherent to the civilized world. The world sighed with relief and is now trying to give every support to the initiators of this process. Awarding Mikhail Gorbachev the Nobel Prize was a convincing confirmation of this.
One recent example of dramatic change was the Soviet reaction to the developments in the Persian Gulf. Along with Western countries, the USSR branded the formerly friendly Arab régime in Iraq as the aggressor. For the first time in many years, the Soviet Union and the United States have found themselves on the same side. One could hardly foresee such a turn in the world developments only a few years ago, although the Soviet Union is still giving military aid to a number of regimes that are its traditional ideological allies.
Seen with new eyes
Accordingly, Western countries are changing their attitude toward the Soviet Union. They now more clearly understand that the success of political and economic reforms in our
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