Russia Rejects Joint Military Action With United States

By Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A06

MOSCOW, Sept. 14 -- Russia today rejected participation in any U.S.-led retaliatory strike against terrorists and said the United States should not use countries in Central Asia as a staging ground for an assault against neighboring Afghanistan.

Although Russia has officially pledged cooperation in fighting what President Vladimir Putin called a "common enemy," today's statements by top Russian military officials could have the effect of restricting U.S. options as President Bush considers whether and how to proceed against those responsible for Tuesday's attacks in New York and Washington. Tajikistan and several other countries in former Soviet Central Asia are among the few obvious launching pads for an attack against the Afghanistan-based organization of leading terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters during a summit in Armenia that the United States and its allies should not rely on Central Asia to stage any assault. "I see absolutely no basis for even hypothetical suppositions about the possibility of NATO military operations on the territory of Central Asian nations," Ivanov said.

At the same time, Russian military leaders made clear Russia likely will not take part "in the retaliatory acts" planned by the United States, said Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, head of the Russian general staff. According to the Interfax news agency, Kvashnin said, "The U.S. armed forces are powerful enough to deal with this task alone."

A day earlier, Ivanov also expressed skepticism about an active role in the U.S. response, telling reporters, "Russia is not planning any kind of military actions or strikes."

But today's statements do not rule out far more extensive cooperation between Russia and the United States than in the past. Both Western and Russian sources here said that high-level bilateral talks are continuing with the aim of "constructive" cooperation that could go well beyond sharing intelligence information. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is to arrive in Moscow next week for meetings on joint anti-terrorist operations.

And Russia's allies in Tajikistan today did not reject the possibility that the United States could use its airspace as part of an operation against bin Laden. In a news conference today in the Kazakh city of Almaty, Tajik Prime Minister Akil Akilov said only that he will "definitely" consult with Russia before agreeing to such a step, according to Interfax.

Still, it was clear today that Russia fears U.S. strikes against bin Laden could set off a new wave of violence in the already volatile region on its southern border, where authoritarian-minded leaders in several former Soviet states are already clashing with Islamic militants at least loosely allied with the extremist Taliban leadership of Afghanistan that has given refuge to bin Laden. Inside Russia, too, there are painful memories of the Soviet Union's decade-long war in Afghanistan that ended in retreat in 1989, a national trauma comparable to the American experience in Vietnam.

But perhaps the greatest deterrent for Russians is the war they are already fighting inside their own borders against Muslim rebels in Chechnya, a bloody and inconclusive conflict that has sapped the country's military resources and made it fear terrorism at home. In recent days, Putin and Ivanov have both claimed that bin Laden has given aid to the Chechen rebels.

"Chechnya alone is enough for us," said Novgorod Gov. Mikhail Prusak. "Russia's participation [in U.S. strikes] could lead to more Islamic radicalism inside the country."

Russia's reluctance "is because we understand from our own experience in Chechnya that military operations do not always result in ending terrorist attacks," said Dmitri Rogozin, chairman of the international affairs committee in the Russian parliament.

In an interview, however, Rogozin said he believed that Putin and Bush had already agreed to substantial cooperation between their intelligence operations and special anti-terrorist forces.

And he said that "what happened in New York and Washington this week ended once and for all the Cold War. Just as 60 years ago, Russia and the U.S. have a common enemy again. Now we have the moral and ethical and political conditions for a fundamental rapprochement between the United States and Russia."

Indeed, since the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a wave of pro-American sentiment has appeared here that stands in stark contrast to recent tensions between Washington and Moscow on issues including missile defense and NATO expansion.

Putin was one of the first world leaders to offer his condolences to Bush on Tuesday; Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said that "Russia stands ready to help in any way." By Thursday, Russia had taken the rare step of issuing a joint statement with NATO calling on "the entire international community to unite in the struggle against terrorism."