Gates: U.S.-Russia relations could suffer

by Aamer Madhani

It didn't seem that long ago that President Bush told the world about looking Vladimir Putin in the eye and "getting a sense of his soul."

Today, Bush's defense secretary, Robert Gates, brushed aside the question of whether Putin could be trusted, but he didn't exactly give the Russian prime minister a rousing endorsement.

"I have never believed that one should make national security policy on
the basis of trust," Gates said. "I think you make national security policy based on interests and on realities."

The Bush administration appears to have few options to pressure the Russians. Gates (pictured at right with the Joint Chiefs' vice chairman, Marine Gen. James Cartwright, smiling at a reporter's question) made crystal clear that U.S. military intervention is not an option and that because of commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan--as well as political sensitivities--that the U.S. was unlikely to take part in any peacekeeping mission in the region.

In his first comments since the fighting started in Georgia, Gates warned that Russia's actions could endanger Moscow-Washington relations for years to come." Gates' remarks at a Pentagon news conference comes a day after Russian troops drove into the Georgian city of Gori despite publicly agreeing to stop its offensive.

Gates, who was in the thick of U.S. policy-making at the CIA during the Cold War, said he didn't want to see U.S.-Russia relations slip into the strained status of that era, but he added that there should be consequences for the Russians actions in Georgia.

The defense secretary went on to say that Russia was attempting "to punish Georgia for daring to try to integrate with the West." Gates noted that every August since 2004 there have been minor skirmishes between the South Ossetia and Georgian troops.

"I think that the Russians' further message was to all of the parts of the former Soviet Union, as a signal about trying to integrate with the West and move outside of the long-time Russian sphere of influence," Gates said. "So I think that they had an opportunity to make some very broad points and, I think, they seized that opportunity."

But Gates said that Russia's relationship with the U.S. could suffer as a result of the incursion. Rice and the defense secretary began talks with Russian officials last fall that were expected to catapult a long-term strategic dialogue. But Gates said that is now in jeopardy.

The Pentagon canceled a scheduled joint naval exercise with the Russians that was to begin tomorrow and scratched a planned U.S.-Canadian-Russian exercise that was to begin next week.

"In the days and weeks ahead, the Department of Defense will reexamine the entire gamut of our military-to-military activities with Russia and will make changes as necessary and appropriate, depending on Russian actions in the days ahead," Gates said.