RUSSIA is using the global financial crisis to attack US policies and to try to reduce Washington's influence, but many countries are looking forward to Barack Obama's presidency and few are likely to follow suit. Hours after Obama won the US presidential election, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused Washington of “conceit” in causing turmoil on world markets and said it partly triggered Moscow's war with Georgia in August. Medvedev also said in a state of the nation address on Wednesday that Russia would respond to US plans to build parts of a missile defence shield in eastern Europe by stationing new missiles near Poland's border. His comments precede a summit in Washington on Nov. 14-15 at which leaders of developed and developing nations in the Group of 20 (G20) will discuss how to combat the crisis and revive global economic growth. Russia will not advocate a return to socialism – Moscow's wealthy businessmen and ruling classes enjoy capitalism as much as anyone – but it says the financial crisis shows yet again why a world with only one superpower world is a bad place. “This idea that emerged in the United States after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that its view is the only indisputably correct view, led the US authorities into making serious economic miscalculations,” Medvedev said. “We need to radically reform the political and economic systems. Russia ... will insist on this.” The Kremlin is now also questioning the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a lender of last resort to stricken countries and wants to stop lending decisions being made on “political grounds” – code for turning down states Moscow considers allies. Unfortunate timing But by resorting to Cold War-era rhetoric just as an unpopular Bush presidency is winding down, Medvedev is unlikely to win new allies. Russia has been trying to build political and diplomatic weight around the four leading emerging market economies – itself, China, India and Brazil, the so-called BRIC nations. Moscow sponsored a meeting of BRIC foreign ministers in Siberia this summer and has stepped up discussions with India and Brazil on major military projects. But no major state is likely to want to follow Russia down a stridently anti-American path when the United States has just elected a new president, Moscow-based analysts said. “There is a lot of enthusiasm around the world for Obama,” said Maria Lipman of the Moscow Carnegie Centre. “Except for a few harshly anti-American states, other countries will find it wiser to wait and see.” Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, said Moscow was mistaken if it believed the Washington G20 meeting would allow it to strengthen its influence at the expense of the United States. “The fact that the United States is hosting the meeting and has invited other emerging nations strengthens its role, and China will also want to strengthen its influence,” he said. “I don't think any serious state will be keen to join an anti-American alliance led by Russia.” Other worries Moscow may soon have other worries closer to home. Although the Kremlin says the global financial crisis is an American plague against which Russia must inoculate itself, economists say Russia may be more vulnerable to the turmoil than it realises. Russian government borrowing is low, but wealthy businessmen known as oligarchs have built up foreign debts of nearly $300 billion, much of it spent on buying each others' assets at ever more inflated prices. A crash in the price of oil and gas – by far Russia's biggest hard currency earners – is turning previously healthy forecasts of surpluses into the red. Medvedev said this week Russia would emerge stronger from the global crisis. But not everyone is convinced. “The financial crisis will hit Russia just as much as other nations”, said Lukyanov. “...for example a (Russian-sponsored) canal across Nicaragua which (Deputy Prime Minister) Sechin was discussing is not just going to happen.” – Reuters __
