© 2000 Discerning the
Times Digest and NewsBytes
After president Vladimir Putin
put his cabinet together in record time it became obvious that he had
prepared for either immediate war or longer term peace focused on
international trade. All but two on the cabinet were holdovers from the
former cabinet. These were key cabinet members who were positioned to take
Russia immediately into war, if necessary.
On May 22, the remaining two
cabinet positions were filled by economic reformers. Economic reformer
Alexi Kudrin took Mikhail Kasyanov’s position as finance minister.
Kasyanov is also an economic reformer who moved to the Prime Minister’s
slot. The other open cabinet position was filled by economic strategist
German Gref, who will run the Economic Development and Commerce Ministry.
These two appointments strongly
suggested Putin did not want war. But, neither would he back away from the
December 9, 1999, demands by Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Jiang Zemin that
the two nations be treated as equals in the emerging world government, and
that they be given absolute sovereignty over their internal affairs.
On May 22 China did an about-face
by saying they would be patient with newly elected Taiwan President Chen
Shui-bian. Did this indicate an agreement had been reached on the December
9, 1999, demands by Russia and China?
Apparently it did. Just before
President Clinton left Germany for Moscow on June 3 to meet with Putin, he
told a German newspaper that, "If Russia shows weakness and
insecurity within its own borders, then our own security is threatened. I
am convinced the best way to achieve this goal is to enhance Russia's
integration in the world economy and within rule-based political and
defence structures."
DTT Digest
believes Clinton was saying that in order to keep Russia (and China) from
using terrorism with weapons of mass destruction in America, he had to
capitulate to their demands to treat them as equals in the emerging world
government and respect their sovereignty over their "internal
affairs." While the deal could go sour at any time, it appears that
we will have world government, not war--at least for awhile. V
mc
