THE `AXIS OF PEACE' AS THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT EUROPE -- RUSSIA, FRANCE AND GERMANY DEMONSTRATE, THAT THEIR POSITIONS ARE NOT DIRECTED AGAINST AMERICA

 is the title of a signal article, published in {Nezavisimaya Gazeta} by Igor Maksimychev, a leading researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Europe. The article should be read against the backdrop of Lyn's recent policy statements, as well as earlier signs of the principled character of the emerging strategic partnerships in Eurasia. The latter include a mid-February source report, to the effect that Putin and his circles have been studying the work of Sergei Witte, in the context of formulating a new Eurasian policy pivoting on cooperation with France and Germany.  Here are excerpts from the Nezavisimaya article:

"The lightning visit of German Chancellor Schroeder to Moscow triggered much speculation around the world. Almost nobody realized the most natural answer to the question, why a simple telephone call could not have been sufficient: namely, that it was necessary, at such a dramatic moment of the crisis around Iraq, to be completely convinced, that one's partner would not waver. Because very big stakes have been placed, above all on the reliability and credibility of the leadership of Europe's most important countries.

"The point is, all three participants in the European Axis of Peace -- Russia, France and Germany -- are under the most extreme pressure.... The biggest attack has been against France, for whose position Jacques Chirac is responsible. But it is also being alleged about Vladimir Putin, that he, when push comes to shove, would chose to `be on the side of the winner', which Washington considers to be its own side.

"From reliable sources it has become known, that Schroeder left Moscow extremely happy: neither he, nor Putin, nor Chirac are considering changing their rejection of the military plans of Washington. And China is supporting them. The possibilities for a peaceful disarmament of Iraq have not been exhausted, and until then, Russia, Germany and France, and also China, are not ready to share with the USA the responsibility for the possibly catastrophic consequences of an invasion of Iraq....

"(But) this time, the Security Council is not just considering this or that formulation of an American-British proposal, but will be able to choose between two conceptions of the future development of the world....

"The extremely close coordination in the positions of the three countries, on questions of international affairs, has still another aspect, not less important than the effort to find a way out of the mess, that the U.S. has gotten itself and the whole world into. It is the beginning of formation of a universal European identity, without which our continent would have no future. A Great Europe from Reykjavik to Vladivostok was declared and promised in writing, at the moment that the Cold War was ended, by common efforts, without the use of force....

"Today France, Germany and Russia have taken the step toward becoming the initiating group for creating a Great Europe. The composition of the group is optimal -- it is composed of the strongest and most influential nations of the continent, who, in the last analysis, will determine its future. If France were not to participate, then the cooperation between Russia and Germany could easily be portrayed as a `rebirth of Rapallo'. (Although the original Rapallo Agreement of 1922 contained nothing but a rejection of territorial claims connected with the First World War and the Russian Revolution, the French politicians at the time succeeding in frightening Europe with the image of a `German-Soviet threat'.) If Germany were not to participate, then it would suffer the fears of being surrounded, as did German policy from the time of Bismarck's `nightmare coalition'. Without Russia, this group would not have an all-embracing European character, which, indeed, defines its essence.

"The notion of a benificent triangular cooperation for the continent, is nothing new in European politics. Attempts to create a `triangle' Paris-Berlin-Moscow, that could determine the fate of Europe, were also made in the 1990s. It didn't work then, because the Russian leadership was not able to elaborate a suitable policy toward Europe (or in any other direction). Today the situation has changed. At the moment there is no guarantee of success, but the chances of success have increased."

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