Does Russia or Iran pose greater danger to world peace?

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Does Russia or Iran pose greater danger to world peace?

[ http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/ ... peace.html ]

Is fear of the Russian bear or an eventual breakdown in negotiations with Iran the bigger threat?

By: Tony Burman Special to the Star, Published on Sat Mar 22 2014

Tony Burman, former head of Al-Jazeera English and CBC News, teaches journalism.

The Star Policards: 0 Councillors mentioned in this article

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QUOTE: "So, yes, let us keep an eye on Putin and Ukraine. But let us never lose sight of Israel and Iran. It is that drama, far more than Russia’s, which is fraught with danger."

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There has been a sense in recent days that this was no ordinary week in the life of the planet. Our already bloodstained 21st-century history — unfolding once again in uncertain and threatening ways — seemed to be opening a new chapter.

Two events last Tuesday in world capitals more than 2,000 kilometres apart best symbolized this. But which of these events do you think poses the greatest potential danger to world peace?

In Moscow, a preening, self-satisfied Vladimir Putin announced to Russia’s puppet parliament that the former Ukrainian region of Crimea — “based on the free will of people” — would join the Russian Federation. This followed a referendum last weekend in Crimea, effectively accomplished at Russian gunpoint. More than 95 per cent of voters, echoing the glory days of former Soviet “democracy,” were said to have voted for annexation.

In Vienna, meanwhile, high-level negotiators from Iran and the world’s six major powers resumed delicate negotiations intended to end the threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb. An interim agreement with Iran runs out in late July, and officials described this week’s agenda as “the toughest” since negotiations began.

So what keeps you awake at night? The fear of the Russian bear moving its military might aggressively beyond Crimea, into the rest of Ukraine and deep into the former Soviet republics? Or an eventual breakdown in negotiations with Iran, with the real prospect that unpredictable military action, led by Israel, will convulse the whole of the Middle East once again?

With all due deference to the Cold Warriors among us who find the Russian narrative so comforting in its familiarity, my focus is still centred on Iran, the West and Israel. It is that drama — not Russia’s — that has the real potential to determine how this next chapter of our 21st-century history will be written.

What Putin did in Crimea was obviously illegal, unacceptable and deserving of international censure. Yes, yes, yes. He needs to be watched. Yes.

But what he did was not surprising. Who would expect Putin to remain silent as its neighbour, Ukraine, threatened Russia’s strategic location on the Black Sea? Does anyone believe that if a neighbour of the United States posed a similar threat to Washington, the U.S. would not act aggressively against it? Has anyone heard of Cuba?

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