Introduction
The international community is remarkably important to many countries because it provides an opportunity for strengthening or weakening foreign relations. Weakened foreign relations often result in many socio-political problems, including inability to accommodate immigrants in the target state. Russia is on the limelight for its poor foreign relations. For instance, its membership in the Soviet Union caused about 15 countries in Europe to defect from the renowned movement. Currently, Russia belongs to the European Union, NATO, and the Commonwealth among other famous organisations across the world (Goldman 16).
This might be the case but a different picture seems to crop from the entire setting. Russia’s poor international relations might make the country lose some of the countries that are extremely significant to its economic development. Poor relations between Russia and the Arabic peninsula deter the state from accruing requisite support from different quotas in the world. As one of the world’s superpowers prior to the WWII, Russia acquired a significant amount of support from countries, thus making it one of the most sought after mediators when matters of conflicts arose. For instance, Russia got recognition during the Denver Summit for its ability to promote peace among Arab countries in the Middle East.
Even though this country strives to establish peaceful coexistence strategies, there are limited chances that it will be able to win over the public goodwill concerning the issue. Already, Russia has envoys in different countries in the world, but the world shows concerns because Russia does little to stop global warming or nuclear power generation. This paper intends to explain how this country loses its friends in the international community and the impacts of the same throughout history. The country has had contradictory opinions and actions to the US and the UK on issues of international interests,
Thesis Statement
Russia is losing friends in the international community because it supports activities that the world considers harmful to humanity while opposing activities that its sworn enemies support even when such projects are important for humans.
Nuclear Weapons in Iran
The weapons of mass destruction in Iran include biochemically manufactured, nuclear weapons, and chemical weapons. According to the international community, the Iranian Government completely understands the magnitude of destruction that nuclear weapons could cause to the entire world. Countries like the UK, the US, and Israel responded negatively towards attempts to launch nuclear power energy in Iran. In addition, the countries condemned treaties that Iran wanted to sign with countries such as Russia and China to support the use of nuclear energy. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) signed by countries that opposed the nuclear weapons in Iran had the greatest support. According to Iran, it sought to use nuclear technology to generate alternative energy to industries (Olson 118).
However, the US, the UK, and the UN opposed the nuclear missions; they argued that Iran was overly ambitious, especially in referring to the plans of the former President – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran only wanted to have the world under its control by being the first country to launch missiles of mass destruction driven by the nuclear technology.
Apart from affecting relationships with the countries that opposed the nuclear project, Russia affected its relationship with the rest of the world. Evidently, the world developed fear because the weapons of mass destruction were overly lethal, thus exposing the entire world to risks of destruction. The Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, and President Dmitry Medvedev denied any knowledge on nuclear activities in Iran.
Later in 2009, the two leaders admitted that Iran had good intentions for the rest of the world because its nuclear energy could only supplement for domestic and industrial power, and the same could not sustain weaponry generation. Probably, the country supported Iran’s mission on nuclear energy even though it disassociated itself from Iran during the first stages of nuclear power development. This affected its relationships with Iran and other parts of the world, which expected Russia to help in stopping nuclear power generation in the country. Iran had the mission of developing weapons of mass destruction using nuclear energy, and Russia wanted to sign a treaty in order to accept the dangerous move. Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme received much opposition from Israel, the UN, and France. However, Russia supported this mission because it had an interest in a treaty that would only benefit its economy, instead of considering the welfare of the rest of the world.
Russia and China supported Iran when the rest of the world turned against the country in the 2009 nuclear power ratification programme (Wright 139). The two countries supplied uranium to Iran, thus enabling it to find chemicals for the manufacture of nuclear energy. Considering that it was a member of the Soviet Union, which strongly supported ideologies of the Denver Summit, it was a shame that it could support a supposed international war outbreak. Technically, the nuclear power generation is likely to lead to WWIII because nations could not agree to the launch of the nuclear mission, while Iran had the weapons of mass destruction that would ruin the entire world (Robinson 130).
Climate Change in North Korea
Climate change is of significant interest to all countries in the world. Efforts are underway to promote reduction of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The greatest intention of countries supporting green living is to protect the ozone layer from gases that deplete it. Over the years, the protective layer raptures because it cannot withstand human and industrial activities causing the destruction of the ozone. North Korea has plans to launch its nuclear programme to help in the supply of clean energy to act as an alternative to non-renewable sources of energy. This nuclear programme could turn out to be dangerous to the rest of the world, thus forcing Russia, China, the US, Japan, and South Korea to mediate. Even though four nations disagreed on the nuclear programme, Russia seems to support this issue.
Climate change is a problem for the rest of the world even though countries should not take radical measures to deal with it at the expense of saving only a section of the world’s population. There are several ways of dealing with climate change since there are different renewable sources of energy including biogas. The US promotes the use of filters for most industrial firms because of their aesthetic nature and ability to conserve the environment (Hahn 11). Concerning the climate change concern in North Korea, China seems to respond affirmatively to the issue by imposing strict sanctions to North Koreans if the country attempts to launch its nuclear power programme. The diplomatic mission gears towards reinforcement of relationships within the East Asian nation. Russia’s interest is in the nuclear power generation programme, instead of concentrating on addressing the climate change menace.
The Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference in Netherlands aimed at dealing with the issue in China and North Korea. During the climate change summit, countries including China and the US aimed at improving their poor foreign relations. Russia displayed no interest in the meeting by lack of representation. Russia has no interest in any activities in the east that would help in creating a sustainable environment for the rest of the world.
North Korea rebelled against the South because South Korea has excellent foreign relations with several countries in Europe and the US. Russia rivals the US since its inception; this has provided it with an opportunity to act in the best interest of North Korea (Belopolsky 93). Evidently, there are countable ways of handling climate change by not involving the use of nuclear energy. Some of the commonly recommended techniques include recycling non-degradable materials and use of fossil fuels, which the country could renew once they undergo depletion. According to the Russian Government, each nation has the capability to exercise autonomy. Therefore, the US and members of the UN should not tell North Korea how to handle its climate change issues. Russia uses the excuse of sovereignty to fight back the US, instead of helping North Korea in recovering from climate change problems by embracing credible strategies.
As such, this distanced Russia from other countries that believe in sovereignty even though they would not allow North Korea to suffer the adverse effects of climate change. By interfering with climate change efforts in North Korea, Russia lost international friends in the East; it only remained with the support from China. This might interfere with its economy considering that foreign relations often help countries in exchanging products and services of value.
US Russia Relations
Since WWII, the foreign relations between Russia and the US have seriously deteriorated. The US and Russia once assumed superpower status, but after US victory in the WWII, the country became the superpower in the world accorded with veto power. The rivalry is evident in terms of their competing economies even though the US shows reception to immigrants from each part of the world. On the other hand, Russia displays high levels of racism, hence deterring it from making friends at the international platform in comparison to its nemesis – the US. The Russian economy deteriorated after WWII because it spent many resources on reparation programmes. The most recent disagreement between the US and Russia involved the Iranian nuclear programme, which the US strongly opposed.
There are concerns from the rest of the world that an emergent cold war could disrupt normalcy in the world (Hallenberg and Karlsson 172). The Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov established that these were mere rumours, which the US and Russia might not think of such an option at the time. Another issue under debate for the two states is the Syrian Uprising, which the US equally opposes, but Russian delegates take a bipartisan stand concerning the issue. Syria was in the verge of manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, but only the US had the veto power to stop such programmes. Russia initially enjoyed stardom within the Soviet Union, but following the defection of many countries from the organ, it became overly difficult for Russia to exercise authority on other states. Seemingly, it only gains prominence from negating anything the US says or does considering that the US is its principal enemy in the West.
The US and Russia disagreed because the US strongly condemned the flawed elections in the country, as it exposed corruption in the country to the rest of the world. The US supports conservative democracy, but the anarchy in Russia’s leadership has continued to destroy the relationship between the two countries. This led to the aggravation of the US’s envoy to Russia, thus instilling fear in other countries that the tyrannical rule of the country could expose their ambassadors to harassment.
In Russia, US envoys only survive by remaining silent, which does not make sense. In addition, any time the US disagrees with Russia, the envoy has to face the consequences. Russia describes international cooperation as the ability of envoys to reinforce relations by accepting the terms of Russia. This violates the international requirements of foreign relations, which support the human right to communication (Kanet 94). Due to poor relations with the US, Russia equally loses friends of the US, especially from Africa. Africa is growing at a high rate; countries that have good foreign relations with the Continent have flourishing economies like China. Africa is a source of raw materials, and it provides a market for finished products. By losing touch with such countries, the Russian economy might face the consequences of such actions. Both Russia and the US are important to each other, but Russia seems to devalue such relationships that help it connect with other countries in the world.
Russia’s Racism
Racism is common in Russia because the immigration laws in the country do not have strict measures to curb the atrocity. This amounts to condoning racism because there are few people punished by the law of the country because they carried out racist activities. For instance, Roberto Carlos a renowned football player had to face racists in Russia twice before thinking of joining another football club that would appreciate his race and skills.
Many international students visiting Russia to further their education have to deal with the culture shock coupled with harsh racist treatment. According to Amnesty International, Russia could be the leading country when discussing racism in the world; the country mostly targets Africans, Caucasians, and the Jews. Efforts are underway to discuss the issue even though the US is the only country bold enough to face Russia head on. Due to the poor relations, Russians still have an opportunity to mistreat foreigners. There are high chances that the country still practices the neo-Nazi rule even though the movement initially belonged to the Germans during the WWII. Racism naturally destroys relationships between countries, and this affects their economies. Russia sometimes acts as if it is a privilege to associate with the country (Carew 32). Such levels of selfishness could deter the progress of a country, thus explaining the drop in the country’s economy after the war.
There is an ardent need to regulate viewership and listenership of racist programmes in Russia since this would be the first step towards dealing with the vice. The country criticises North Caucasus residents for the high population, notwithstanding negative comments about the disabled in the society. According to the Caucasus residents in Russia, the society focuses on them because the Muslims largely dominate the community. Evidently, many Africans and Jews refrain from visiting Russia because of such concerns.
There are poor relations between the entire African Continent and Russia. Russia mostly demeans Africa because it supports it through donor aid and offering higher education programmes. There are different cases of Africans dealing with the tag name “monkey” or people throwing bananas or peals at them. Besides Africans, the Jews also face cruelty from Russians; this began during the Nazi regime. As such, Russia would be ready to object any suggestions made by the US or Israel because the rivalry began long before the 21st century. As this happens, the Russian residents also have to deal with negative receptions when they visit Africa or Israel among other parts of the world.
People easily identify Russians making it almost impossible to ignore their presence. With such relationships, Russia and other countries cannot share constructive information on the global platform. Additionally, the country does not get an opportunity to trade its resources and services at the international platform. Only Iran and Syria would be willing to purchase uranium and other natural resources from Russia because of the interest they have in the nuclear weapons. Racism is a vice that almost all countries condemn, and failure to address the issue would make Russia lose friends that have links with Africans, Jews, and the Caucasus (Racism in Russia 77).
The Ukraine Issue
Russia and Ukraine are among the core founders of the Soviet Union even though Ukraine stopped being a member State of the renowned organisation. Ukraine seeks to establish its Orange Revolution in Russia but the Premier, Putin, would not condone the same. According to the Russian President, should Ukraine join the NATO, Russia is likely to defect from the union. This should not be the reaction of one of the most powerful countries in the world after disagreeing with only one country (Gonzales 27). Russia should focus on subtle ways of solving problems with its supposed enemies, instead of using irrational strategies and exposing conflicts to the rest of the world. The rest of the world believes that Russia takes advantage of its richness in natural resources to intimidate countries that have growing economies.
There is evidence that Russia only wants such economies to depend on it and any signs of independence spites Russia. As such, Russia also strives to control the political platform in Ukraine besides economics. In 2010, Ukraine elected Viktor Yanukovych, an ardent supporter of the Russian Government as President; this helped in stabilising the relations between the two countries, but Russia’s dominance overwhelmed the growing country, thus making it rebel from the powerful Russia in early 2014. Studies indicate that Russia wanted to take complete control of Crimea given that its military had a significant presence in Ukraine (Gonzales 30). Ukraine is a sovereign State; it responded to the issue by suspending any form of martial links with Russia. Russia could no longer use Ukraine as transit for its military equipment, and this destroyed relations between the countries in 2014.
President Dmitri Medvedev and the Ukrainian President signed a treaty in 2010 to mark two and a half decades of natural gas concession. Even though Ukraine would benefit from the deal, the agreement did not follow the lease procedures in the country. A scandal ensued because the public could no longer condone the activities between the two states. Evidently, the Ukrainian President only sought to impress the Russian Premier and President, instead of operating based on the rule of law. Besides the issues of weapons and the reduction in gas prices for 25 years, Russia and Ukraine have no clear boundary at the Sea of Azov; this generates a conflict of interest between the two states. Conflicts within waterways often promote pirate activities while at the same time destroy credible relations between countries (Kaplan 210).
For example, in 2013, there was a scandal in which Russian fishermen died on the Ukrainian side because a Ukrainian fisherman attacked them. Normally, the international law mentions that countries should not detain citizens of other countries, unless they get consent from the neighbouring state, or they have sufficient truth that the neighbouring country did not intend to punish the offenders. In 2013, Russia did not consult Ukraine and instead apprehended the fisherman and harassed him without contacting the legal authorities in Ukraine.
When countries violate the international standards of administering justice, it becomes almost impossible to maintain mutually beneficial relationships with other countries. This also explains the relationships between Iraq, Afghanistan, and the US following the introduction of detention at the Guantanamo Bay after the 9/11 attacks. The international law is particular about justice administration and it would be wrong to violate such principles set after the WWII. Experts mention that Russia needs to align its custom regulations to the international law. Border issues between Ukraine and Russia continue to ruin the hard-earned reputation of Russia while the two countries continually distract immigration procedures.
Ukraine strives to secure its borders to prevent a reoccurrence of the Crimean issue in which masked men probably from Russia stormed the state and attacked selected buildings. This seizure scared Ukrainians while at the same time allowed Russia to acquire sensitive information from various offices just because the Ukrainian Government was not ready to support the 25-year lease on gas discounts that would cost Russia $15 billion (Onyshkevych and Revakovych 61).
The Syrian Crisis
Besides Iran, Syria is another Middle East country that receives opposition from the Arabian Peninsula. Russia is resource rich country; it has markets in Syria, thus explaining its financial interests in the country. Syria is equally rich in natural resources and Russia has an interest in its oil and gas considering it could not achieve the same in Ukraine. Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian President, is a tyrannical leader typical of the leadership style in Russia.
There is a high possibility that weapons shipment between Russia and Syria could cause a conflict of interest between them in future. Currently, Arabic States have poor political relations with Syria because of Assad’s dictatorial leadership (Robinson 132). The Qatar envoy to Syrian faced physical harassment because most Qatari companies ought to revoke contracts made between them and Syria. The concern for Arab States is that the weapons of mass destruction imported from Russia might cause a civil insurgence in Syria. There is almost no control about the shipment even though Russia only strives to benefit its economy not considering the welfare of other people in the world. After WWII, countries agreed never to use weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to fight each other. Russia was one of the countries that pledged to do the same. By supporting such actions in Syria, it displays disloyalty to international peace agreements.
Russia should strive at building mutually beneficial relationships with the Middle East because of the resources they share (Travels of Rabbi Petachia of Ratisbon: who, in the latter end of the twelfth century, visited Poland, Russia, Little Tartary, the Crimea, Armenia, Assyria, Syria, the Holy Land, and Greece 45). Continued support of Syria, Iran, and North Korea already destroys its relationships with countable states in the world.
Destruction of foreign relations is costly because countries like Russia will have to deal with discrimination of its citizens in other countries. In addition, its economic exchanges with other countries will reduce because its reputation does not enable sovereign states to partner with it in order to carry out business operations. However, Russia does not seemingly care about its reputation because its main agenda is to become the most powerful state in the world. The country does not focus on effective communication to achieve goodwill; it has an irrational strategy by scaring neighbouring countries with its dictatorial leadership. Russia only displays diplomacy to countries that support its selfish ambitions.
Conclusion
In summary, there are powerful states that have many natural resources, but they are overly careful about their foreign relations. The states like China and United Arab Emirates (UAE), which might have problems with the US, strive to keep their target markets stable, as opposed to Russia’s moves. For instance, the countries have good relationships in their continents and in Africa as well. When a country has poor relations within its continent or with its neighbours, it would be impossible to build the same with other states around the world. Russia should not take advantage of its resources to oppress others in the world, or else, it will only have the confidence of two nations in the Middle East, but they may not provide the requisite market in future.
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