MUSCOVITES HAVE just been treated to a curious reminder of their authoritarian communist past, with the visit to the Russian capital of North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-Il. Kim arrived at the end of a nine-day, six thousand mile train journey along trans-Siberian railroad.
The visit could hardly have been better timed to cause maximum annoyance to Moscow's citizens. Kim's 21 carriage train trundled into a main terminus on Friday evening. So tight was security surrounding his arrival, the entire station was closed, with the cancellation of 15 normally busy rush hour trains. North Korea's paranoid leader's refusal to fly was apparently through fear of his plane being shot down. What purpose is being served by his meeting with President Putin?
The old Soviet Union was once North Korea's staunchest ally but with the collapse of communism, the only interest the Kremlin had in Pyongyang was the remote possibility of being repaid some of the hundreds of millions it had provided North Korea over the years. Kim Jong-il is unlikely to have that debt written off. The Russians are however indicating that they will help upgrade North Korea's transport infrastructure as well as assisting in modernizing heavy industrial plant.
For the North Korean leader, who is making only his second official overseas visit, probably the main benefit is the fact that any world leader at all is prepared to welcome him. For Putin, Kim Jong-il's trip has much clearer benefits. By presenting himself as a link with what the United States insists is a nuclear rogue state, Putin is seeking to give himself leverage with Washington. President George W. Bush's determination to press ahead with the Son of Star Wars antiballistic missile shield has effectively torn up the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. If Putin can appear to be bringing North Korea to heel, then there will be less justification for Washington to press ahead with developing its missile shield. He can present himself as a peacemaker, at a time when Russia is starting to reassume an altogether less peaceable posture, as witnessed by its continuing oppression in Chechnya.
It matters not that the Russians themselves have for over ten years been working on their own missile shield. President Putin's entertainment of this puffed up little North Korean dictator is therefore much more than a reminder to ordinary Russians, of the hollow, soulless doctrinaire communist days. It is in fact a cynical ploy in a new round of the global chess game at which the Soviet Union used to excel.
In recent years, the Kremlin has had to retreat across the board and is still playing with markedly less pieces than its White House opponents. But the essence of chess is the long game. By wheeling out the absurd little red pawn of Kim Jong-il, Putin is hoping to deceive the Americans. If they endorse his move, they are undermining the rationale for their own missile shield. If they condemn it, they cast themselves as warmongers, anxious to avoid any opportunity that could lead to peace with the pariah state of North Korea. The wider significance is that under the dour and conservative President Putin, Russia appears to be starting back into the old geopolitical Great Game and this is not necessarily a welcome development.
