Sorry to be a pain, but is there anyone out there who speaks Russian and wouldn't mind looking something up for me online?

I've got a presentation to give on Monday about "Russian reactions to the NATO-UN partnership" - specifically, the framework for cooperation contained in the joint declaration of the 23rd September 2008. My problem is that this was a) a borderline secret affair (the UN website still won't acknowledge its existence - if you want to get a copy online you have to go to the Wikileaks cache) and b) really boring anyway, so there's very little about it online.

Apart from one article in Survival, all the information on it from the kind of websites that use the phrase "global government conspiracy" without irony. Apparently Lavrov called the declaration sneaky and illegal, and Russia reacted by trying to get the UN to agree to something similar with the CSTO, but that's all I've got.

There might be more info about the Russian response on Russian language sites, but I have no idea as the only Russian word I can read with any confidence is водка. Would someone mind having a look and telling me whether they say anything interesting?

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Unfortunately, my Russian is very poor. I took two classes of Russian when I was an undergraduate student and hardly use that language thereafter at all. If you give me a link to a short text, I can probably translate it for you, but I cannot rapidly look through entire Russian websites to check whether they contain what you are looking for.

Based on a bad Google translation, this might contain some clues. A person named Rogozin criticizes NATO for trying to become the 'equal' of the UN. There is something about "Rogozin" complaining about about "Ban Ki-moon, pushing to sign such a document", and this final paragraph (with Google translation):

Permanent representative added that the final declaration at the NATO anniversary summit has no formulation of the cooperation of the secretariats of these organizations, but it was a "joint declaration between the UN and NATO".
«Мы сталкиваемся с опасной манипуляцией, когда за нашей спиной, за спиной постоянного члена СБ ООН, происходит подписание разного рода документов, по которым у нас есть вопросы. "We are faced with a dangerous manipulation, when behind our backs, behind a permanent member of UN Security Council, is the signing of various documents on which we have questions. Это некрасиво. It's ugly. Я думаю, что это потребует дополнительных разъяснений со стороны НАТО», - сказал дипломат. I think that this will require further guidance from NATO ", - the diplomat said.

http://www.pravda.ru/world/06-04-2009/307396-nato-0

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Thanks, Rogozin is Russia's ambassador (representative?) to NATO.

Otherwise, don't worry about it. I'll get by with the English stuff and as much padding as it takes. Cheers!

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Russia stunned by UN-NATO cooperation deal

14:5709/10/2008
BISHKEK, October 9 (RIA Novosti) - Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that Russia was shocked the UN and NATO had secretly signed a cooperation agreement without all UN member states reading the draft.
"Before such agreements are signed, their drafts should be submitted to member states for reading. But in this case this did not happen, and the agreement between the secretariats was signed secretly," Sergei Lavrov told journalists after a CIS foreign ministers' meeting in Bishkek.

The Russian diplomat said he had asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon while at the UN General Assembly last month why such secrecy was needed but "received no comprehensible explanation."

He also said it was surprising that although the document implied cooperation between the two secretariats, its text contained provisions related to immediate prerogatives of member states, including the intention to cooperate in maintaining international security on the basis of the UN Charter and certain international directives.

"We asked both secretariats what this could mean and we are waiting for a reply, but we warned the UN leadership in the strictest fashion that things of this kind must be done without keeping secrets from member states and on the basis of powers and authority held by the secretariats," Lavrov said.

He added that cooperation between the UN and regional organizations was in general a normal and necessary thing but said such ties must be transparent and arouse no questions.

Russia's envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said late Wednesday that Ban Ki-moon and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer signed the declaration of cooperation between the secretariats on September 23 during the UN General Assembly in New York.

Rogozin accused Ban Ki-moon of acting beyond his powers and pointed to a discrepancy between the preface and the body of the document, saying Moscow could not consider the document legitimate and would view it as reflecting the UN chief's personal opinion.

Rogozin said he hoped the issue would be raised in the UN Security Council and the secretariat, as well as at NATO because the document related to Afghanistan.

[English version published]

Russia stunned by UN-NATO cooperation deal | Top Russian news and analysis online | 'RIA Novosti' newswire

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Russian envoy accuses NATO of trying to compete with UN

18:2913/03/2009
MOSCOW, March 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's NATO envoy accused the Western alliance on Friday of trying to take on a global role, competing with the United Nations.
"Attempts to submit proposals for NATO reform have been made for a long time now, but still nothing distinct has been said. According to fragmented information, documents and events, we can see that NATO is essentially ready to compete with the UN," Dmitry Rogozin told the Russian News Service radio.

NATO froze ties with Russia last September, after the Georgia-Russia war.

Earlier this month Russia's Foreign Ministry welcomed NATO's willingness to resume cooperation. Rogozin earlier said that the work of the Russia-NATO Council could resume later in March, and that the "period of estrangement" in Russia-NATO relations is "largely behind us."

Russian envoy accuses NATO of trying to compete with UN | Top Russian news and analysis online | 'RIA Novosti' newswire

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18:2403/09/2009
MOSCOW, September 3 (RIA Novosti) - The lack of a genuine threat from Russia makes it far harder for NATO to decide on its polices than during the Cold War, a Moscow-based analyst said on Thursday.

It would be "ideal" for the Western military alliance if Russia posed the same kind of military threat as the Soviet Union did in its time - "then everything would fall into place," Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the Russia in Global Affairs quarterly, said.

NATO accomplished its mission when the Soviet Union broke up and is now looking for a new raison d'etre, he said. However, "it will be unable to adjust to the new situation" since NATO is "by definition a regional organization," while the existing threats are "global."

The alliance is looking for a new global role, but attempts to "turn NATO into a global organization have failed." As for Russia, it "has ceased being an enemy but has not become an ally" and is unlikely to become one in the foreseeable future.


Lack of threat from Russia stumps NATO - analyst | Top Russian news and analysis online | 'RIA Novosti' newswire

This is the last of the things I'd found before seeing your 'down tools' order...

The Russians seem to have taken the line that the 'UN/NATO partnership' was a push towards making NATO more an 'equal partner' of the UN on the Global level, and according to them, this idea is going nowhere.

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"Neither man nor nation can exist without a sublime idea."
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1821 - 1881
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My BLOG: Things Have Changed

Thanks. The Survival article is pretty insightful, and I'd post it if it wasn't protected content. Apparently the decision was an embarrassment to the UN despite its policy of encouraging regional organisations, and that's why it was played down so much. It followed similar agreements with the African Union, the EU and ASEAN, which few of the other sites mention.

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