What does the Russian government think of Operation Odyssey Dawn? Depends on who you ask. Leader-for-life Vladimir Putin called it a "crusade." But his sidekick, President Dmitry Medvedev, in an eyebrow-raising public rebuke of the boss, said he was basically okay with the idea of smacking the Gadhafi regime from the skies.
Russia chose not to block the United Nations resolution that authorized the mission, preferring to simply abstain when it came up at the Security Council. But that didn't stop Putin from laying into it with loaded language yesterday. "The Security Council resolution is deficient and flawed; it allows everything and is reminiscent of a medieval call for a crusade," he said during a visit to a ballistic missile factory. Using "crusade" to define the military efforts of a predominately non-Muslim coalition against Libya is pretty heavy verbal ordnance. It plays on the narrative of a global religious conflict with Islam and feeds into Gadhafi's own framing of the no-fly zone as the product of a "crusader coalition."
Medvedev apparently wasn't too happy with the choice of words. Shortly after Putin made his comments, Medvedev blasted the characterization, saying "It is absolutely inexcusable to use expressions that in effect lead to a clash of civilizations - such as 'crusades,' and so on - that is unacceptable." While Russia has concerns over military action, Medvedev explained, the government opted against a veto because it didn't consider the resolution to be "wrong."
All of which has made things a bit awkward for Defense Secretary Bob Gates, who's in Russia today for talks on missile defense with Russia's defense minister Anatoliy Serdyukov. Serdyukov reportedly criticized the coalition civilian casualties but said Russia was still fine with the UN no-fly zone resolution, according to the AP. Gates challenged the Russians for characterizing the depiction of civilian casualties as the result of coalition, rather than Gadhafi, forces, but noted that Serdyukov's "comments were closer to President Medvedev," than Putin's more bombastic statement.
Today, Putin's spokesman has since qualified the "crusade" comments, telling Reuters it was "nothing other than his personal opinion." So who's really in charge here?
Medvedev took over the Russian presidency in 2008, giving Putin, limited to two consecutive terms under the Russian constitution, a chance to cool his heels as Prime Minister and run for president again in 2012. Ever since then, there's been plenty of speculation about whether Medvedev is likely to run for the presidency in 2012. Some view the two as engaged in a knowing good-cop, bad-cop partnership, with Medvedev cast as the western-friendly good cop. Others see them more as frenemies jockeying for power.
For its part, the U.S. government thinks the buck stops with Putin. "Medvedev and Putin work well together, but Putin holds most, and the best, of the cards in the tandem relationship," one leaked U.S. diplomatic cable from 2010 reads.
Photo: Wikipedia
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