MUCH VAUNTED "RESET"

It all began two weeks after President Barack Obama's visit to Moscow when US Vice-President Joe Biden visited Ukraine and Georgia. Almost all the world's media agreed in their commentaries that Biden had been given the job of dispelling US allies' anxiety at the "reset" between Washington and Moscow. At the same time he had to be careful in his statements not to provoke further confrontation with Russia.

With this in mind, Joe Biden said in both Kiev and Tbilisi that the resumption of dialogue between Moscow and Washin-gton does not harm Ukraine or Georgia. The US vice-president described Ukraine as one of the freest and most democratic countries in the region, restated the USA's support for Ukraine joining NATO and announced the creation of an American-Ukrainian working group on energy security in order to help Kiev reduce dependence on Russian raw materials. But at the same time he heaped criticism on Ukraine's rancorous coalition leadership. "Communications among leaders have broken down to such an extent that political posturing appears to prevent progress," Biden said. "Friend-ship requires honesty." He added that there could be no flourishing of democracy without economic progress in Ukraine.

Much the same was to come in Biden's speeches in Georgia, where on the one hand he confirmed support for Georgia's North Atlantic ambitions, but on the other had little to say on military supplies and US participation in an EU observation mission on the cease-fire line with Russia. 

In both Ukraine and Georgia Biden made it clear that the political process in both countries leaves much to be desired. 

True, the American diplomat did not hesitate to remind people that the USA as before does not recognize any Russian claims to a sphere of influence in the near abroad. Many analysts think the idea was the leitmotif of Joe Biden's "reassurance" tour.

The job seems to have been done - the wolves are satisfied and the sheep are safe and sound. But the American vice-president's frankness in an interview with The Wall Street Journal nonetheless annoyed the Kremlin. The US vice-president said that a weakened Russia will bend to the United States, the Inopress.ru web site reports. He said that the Russian economy is withering and this will force Moscow to make accommodations to the West on a raft of national security issues, including loosening its grip on the former Soviet republics and cutting its colossal nuclear arsenal.

Biden sees domestic tensions as the main driving force in Russia's foreign policy. The US vice-president also said that the Russian population is shrinking, the banking sector and structure are unlikely to be able to withstand the next 15 years and the country as a whole is clinging to something in the past that is not sustainable while the world is changing before them.

The US vice-president thinks that Moscow's desire to resume nuclear reduction talks is because it can no longer afford its arsenal. Russia will not be able to frighten its neighbours any more, while cutting off energy supplies rebounded on Moscow by reviving the Nabucco gas pipeline project, Biden said.

True, he urged the USA to treat Russia as a major player. "My dad used to put it another way: Never put another man in a corner where the only way out is over you." But even this did not dispel the doubts of many analysts, primarily Western ones, about the sincerity of Washington's plans for rapprochement with Moscow. "Is this why the USA is pinning its hopes on a successful reset of relations with Russia?" commentators asked about Joe Biden's remarks on a "weakened Russia". 

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera writes: "Joe Biden, who quite often makes verbal gaffes, this time, probably, expressed the widely-held view of the American administration." But in this case it's the latest repetition of the "historic" mistakes of Hitler and Napoleon, commentator Fabrizio Dragosei continues, recalling how in the early 1990s Europe and America wrote off Moscow, but Russia rose up again, thanks primarily to oil and gas.

Joe Biden's interview seems to have seriously worried Obama's administration too. The following day US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to correct Joe Biden.

"We view Russia as a great power," Hillary Clinton said on NBC News's Meet the Press. "Every country faces challenges… The Russians know we have continuing questions about some of their policies, and they have continuing questions about some of ours." The secretary of state singled out for praise continuing cooperation on such issues as Iran, North Korea and combating extremism. 

Hillary Clinton implied that the vice-president had not said what he really meant to say. She recalled that he was the first person in the administration to advocate a "reset" of relations with Russia.

Another White House representative, Robert Gibbs, said that "our efforts in resetting relations with Russia are focusing on joint work on ensuring the security and prosperity of the American and Russian peoples." "Russia will work with us not out of weakness but out of national interest," Gibbs corrected Biden.

Moscow itself, which held back from a negative reaction to Biden's visit to Ukraine and Georgia, could not contain its indignation at Joe Biden's interview and saw a "false bottom" in America's diplomacy. "You have to ask who decides US foreign policy - the president or members of his team, however respected they may be," said Sergey Prikhodko, foreign policy adviser to the Russian president. 

At the same time he hoped that Joe Biden's remarks are not a reflection of the whole White House's deliberate policy but just the opinion of individual officials.

But it's difficult not to agree with the president of the Russian Institute of Strategic Asses-sments, Aleksandr Konovalov, who thinks that Biden's remarks could not be diametrically opposed to the Obama administration's position. It's another question whether it was possible to express this position. "Biden takes and can take the position of any part of the American elite. But he agreed to serve in Barack Obama's administration. And now that he is in his government, in the role of the second most important politician in the USA, it would not be acceptable to act openly against the opinion of his boss. In the USA, if your own opinion does not coincide with the president's opinion, you don't go to work in the administration," Konovalov said.

It looks as though President Obama's administration really does have advocates of deriving foreign policy benefits from the financial crisis in which Russia's capabilities do not quite match its ambitions.

In any case, Joe Biden's remarks did not come at the best time for American-Russian relations, given that after US President Barack Obama's visit to Moscow the sides had succeeded in creating quite favourable conditions for establishing dialogue.

It was clear that both Russia and the USA did a great deal to create that atmosphere for further cooperation. But it is also clear that Biden's trip to Ukraine and Georgia and his interview with The Wall Street Journal will not be forgotten in Moscow.

One way or another, the USA and Russia "are starting to reset relations", as Hillary Clinton put it. And at this stage the sides need to maintain a climate of trust to continue the dialogue that has been started.