Visiting Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage cajoled a hesitant Russia on Wednesday to provide firm assistance with US reprisal strikes against suspected terrorist bases in Afghanistan.
Armitage, the second senior US official to drop by Moscow this week, met behind closed doors with First Deputy Prime Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov, who formerly headed Russia's foreign intelligence service.
The talks came only hours before Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was due to meet his US counterpart Colin Powell in Washington as the United States accelerated its diplomatic drive to forge an anti-terrorism coalition.
Russia has expressed readiness to share information concerning the possible location of Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in last week's attacks on the United States who is thought to be hiding in Afghanistan.
However Moscow has been cagey about saying how far it is prepared to go in cooperating with Washington and top officials have at times contradicted each other while President Vladimir Putin remains out of sight on a "working vacation", as officials have termed it, at Sochi on the Black Sea.
Russian generals have stressed that Moscow will not take part in any attacks and is unwilling to open former Soviet bases to US troops for such a campaign -- leaving the United States reliant on Pakistan and Iran for technical support.
"We have not [participated] and will not" participate in US strikes, Russia's Chief of Staff General Anatoly Kvashnin said while on a visit to Tajikistan.
Yet on his arrival in Washington, Ivanov signaled that Moscow had still not made up its mind on the issue of ex-Soviet bases for Washington's mooted Afghan assault.
"Every state [among former Soviet republics] will decide on its own how it intends to cooperate with the United States," Ivanov said in televised remarks.
Russian generals had previously flatly ruled out the idea, Moscow this week dispatching top security envoys on a Central Asian diplomatic tour aimed at keeping the region -- which it regards as its "near-abroad" -- in line.
Russia and the United States had long been economic rivals in the oil- and natural gas-rich central Asia region, with the Russian military expressing concern that US troops would set up permanent camp in the region should they be given access to Moscow's old bases.
Neither Armitage nor Trubnikov spoke to the press following their Wednesday talks.
Of the three former Soviet republics bordering Afghanistan, only Uzbekistan has indicated that it might be willing to host US troops.
Russian Security Council Secretary Vladimir Rushailo was in the Uzbekistan capital Tashkent on Wednesday to sound out the Uzbek position.
After the talks, Uzbek President Islam Karimov said his country had "made no commitments" to the United States.
However Karimov added that he was "prepared for and open to discussing a joint war on terrorism. No one can deny US assistance in a fight with this evil."
Tajikistan, fearing a massive influx of Afghan refugees, has adopted a more cautious line, while the isolationist republic of Turkmenistan has maintained a neutral stance.
Russian politicians of most stripes remain skeptical of a military campaign in Afghanistan, where Soviet troops suffered a humiliating defeat in a brutal 1979-1989 war.
"Terrorism cannot be conquered by force, it can only be conquered with intelligence. The Americans just want to launch a war, with the right to bomb any government," grumbled Communist party boss Vladimir Zyuganov.
Yet the State Duma lower house of parliament, in its first autumn session, adopted a resolution backing Putin's position in regards to reprisal attacks, although some conceded they had little idea what that position was.
"Our president is in a tight spot, and he needs our support while he continues to negotiate," said centrist Duma deputy Vyacheslav Volodin -- MOSCOW (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
