Moscow flexing Russian army muscle

Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.

Kremlin

Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev is pushing for legal authority to use Russia's armed forces beyond his nation's borders under conditions that would allow Moscow an open-ended approach to reasserting its standing to other countries, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The move is looked upon with increasing trepidation by its neighbors who fear it would give Moscow the authority to use troops where it believes its citizens are threatened.

More specifically, the plan would give the president increased authority to determine "the number of formations of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, regions of their deployment, their tasks and the time framework of their use," according to the legislation. It still reserves for the upper chamber of the State Duma, or Russian parliament, when to engage that military power, as proscribed by the Russian constitution.

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The amendment would allow the President to engage Russia's military to:

• Counter an attack against the Russian Armed Forces or other troops deployed beyond Russia's borders.
• Counter or prevent aggression against another country.
• Protect Russian citizens abroad.
• Combat piracy and ensure the safe passage of shipping.

Leaders of the Russian Duma have promised quick passage of the amendment to the Federal Law on Defense.

The authority sought may conflict with international norms in how the Kremlin interprets what constitutes a threat to Russian citizens or to counter or prevent any aggression against another state.

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The basis sought for extending its military force overseas makes Moscow's interpretation very open-ended and subject to military initiatives anywhere in the world where it believes its interests may being threatened.

Such authority, for example, also could allow the president to launch troops anywhere in Central Asia under the guise of eliminating terrorist threats from that region. It could be used as a basis, especially under an aggressive chief executive, to maintain Russian influence in what was the former Soviet Republics in an effort to minimize growing western influence.

As a consequence, any initiative then will be looked upon as a defensive rather than as an offensive effort.

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This was the case last year at this time when Russia invaded the former Soviet republic of Georgia in what it perceived to be a threat to Russian peacekeepers and the Russian ethnic population in the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia interpreted Georgian action against the killing of its own peacekeepers in South Ossetia as aggression and launched its military into Georgia.

Such Russian intentions also are seen as a way for Moscow to halt western influence in Georgia, which sought to join the North Atlantic Treaty organization. Moscow was concerned that with Georgia being part of NATO, it would allow the western security organization to venture into areas Moscow regarded as being in its own sphere of influence.

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