Heritage.org
Aug 14 2010
Russian Deployment of S-300 Missiles Threatens U.S. Interests in the Caucasus
Posted August 13th, 2010 at 3:00pm in American Leadership
On Wednesday, Gen. Alexander Zelin, the commander of the Russian Air
Force, announced that Moscow had deployed a state-of-the-art S-300
(SA-20 Favorit) long- range air defense system in Abkhazia, a region
of the Republic of Georgia that Russia has occupied since the August
2008 war.
Since then, Russia recognized breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia as
independent republics. According to Zelin, the task of the air defense
systems is `to prevent violation of Abkhaz and South Ossetian airspace
and to destroy any aircraft intruding into their airspace no matter
what their purpose might be’.
However, there is much more than the defense of Abkhazia to the
Russian deployment. Taken together with the S-300 base in Armenia, it
extends the strategic air space over South Caucasus and over parts of
the Black Sea, furthering Russian control.
The response from the Obama Administration was faint. P. J. Crowley,
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and State Department spokesman said:
`I believe it’s our understanding that Russia has had S-300 missiles
in Abkhazia for the past two years.’ He later claimed that this is
`not necessarily’ a new development. This is another example of the
Obama Administration’s `don’t let your missiles interfere with my
reset policy’ approach.
However, with this move Russia is yet again flagrantly violating the
August 2008 ceasefire agreement, negotiated by French President
Nicolas Sarkozy. It called upon both countries to withdraw troops to
pre-war positions and restore status-quo ante bellum. In addition,
Russia has built up to five military bases in Abkhazia and South
Ossetia in the past two years alone.
Although the range of the system is about a 120 miles, the deployment
has to be seen in the context of recent Russian policies in the
Caucasus. Moscow negotiated a contract extension for basing troops in
the Armenian Gyumri military base till 2044. It will assume joint
control over Armenian borders. As the leading member of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization, Russia controls air space over Armenia.
Now Moscow is reportedly selling an S-300 air defense system to
Azerbaijan.
There is a clear strategy behind these actions. While Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton hails `soft power’ in the Caucasus, Moscow
engages in a hard, classic political-military power projection in this
strategic region, which connects the Atlantic (via the Black Sea and
Mediterranean) with the energy riches of Eurasia. As President
Medvedev stated in his post-war 2008 speech, this is `a zone of
Russian exclusive interests’, where it is willing to use force.
Most importantly from the perspective of the United States, Russian
actions are aimed at denying the United Space airspace and over-flight
options. The surveillance aspect is no less important – depending on the
actual deployment of the air defenses: associated radars will be able
to picture or `paint’ much of western Georgia and the adjoining Black
Sea coastline. The ultimate objective for Moscow is to become an
uncontested hegemon in the South Caucasus. And of course this has
potential implications in case of an Iranian contingency.
The Russians are committed to deployments in the Caucasus that lead to
the strategic denial of U.S. power projection in that region. This
bears on the U.S.’s future ability to resupply Afghanistan; to use
power to disarm a nuclear Iran; to ensure energy supply from the
Caspian; and to help pro-Western friends and allies. These are hardly
great accomplishments for the Obama `reset’ policy’.
From: A. Papazian
http://blog.heritage.org/?p=41118