If the long-term head of the USSR Foreign Ministry, Andrei GROMYKO, was called Mr. NO for intransigence, his namesake, Russian Foreign Minister Andrei KOZYREV, by analogy earned the nickname Mr. YES. He was a man who was pleasant in all respects - true, only for Western partners, whose interests he openly lobbied for. The five years and three months that Kozyrev steered by the ministry went down in history as the years of shame and dishonor of Russian diplomacy.
Kozyrev’s worldview was formed ... sausage. In 1975, Andrei Vladimirovich first appeared in the West, moreover, immediately in the United States. And he was shocked by the amount of food in the supermarket.
“And this circumstance,” the former minister said frankly, “led me to an absolute internal dissidentism.” I continued to work at the Foreign Ministry, but in the end, to be honest, I was just an anti-Soviet.
Kozyrev handed over Russia's interests selflessly, arguing that the West and NATO are “Russia's natural allies.” At his insistence, Russian troops were withdrawn from Germany on humiliating conditions. The implementation of the plan was, in fact, a criminal adventure. As the famous publicist Alexander Khinshtein wrote: “The Americans withdrew three brigades from the Philippines for 12 years, and we withdrew three armies, half a million people, in a matter of days.”
It's hard to believe, but the minister of a great country persuaded the Americans to organize a photo shoot with Bill Clinton - so, they say, he will gain credibility with Yeltsin. Strobe Talbott, US Under Secretary of State for Russia and the countries of the former USSR, recalled: “I told him that he would see the president only if he would confirm to Chris (Secretary of State Christopher Warren. - M.V.) the plan that we prepared ".
Experts agree that we are talking about the expansion of NATO to the East, which Talbott actively promoted, although even the Pentagon considered this premature. Further, the curator of the Russian direction in the State Department writes that Kozyrev “agreed, arrived in Washington, said all the right words to Chris, earned a short limousine ride on Pennsylvania Avenue, 1600 to meet Clinton.”
However, they were ready to carry Kozyrev in his arms not only in the West, but also in the East. It was somehow forgotten that Kozyrev persuaded Yeltsin to transfer the Kuril Islands to the Japanese. On August 21, 1992, the Russian government signed by Gaidar issued an order on the preparation of a state visit to the Land of the Rising Sun.
However, experts in the bowels of the State Security Committee calculated the risks and were horrified. Such an adventure in the style of the film “Ivan Vasilievich is changing his profession” (“Kemsk parish? Take it away, the state will not become poor!”) Would create a shaft of territorial claims to Russia weakened at that time. As a result, the special services simply ... disrupted Yeltsin’s visit. About this, years later, frankly major general of the FSO Boris Ratnikov frankly told. The Chekists accused the receiving side that they could not ensure the security of the head of state. The Kuril Islands remained in Russia.
But the thirst of Kozyrev to bestow the Russian zemstvo foreigners was quenched. He transferred over 600 islands to the Amur and Ussuri to China. Including the famous Damansky, defending which from the Chinese in 1969, 58 border guards died. Also, eastern comrades got fertile virgin lands in the Primorsky Territory.
In his memoirs, Yevgeny Primakov recalled how once the former US President Richard Nixon asked Andrei Kozyrev about the interests of the new Russia.
“One of the problems of the Soviet Union was that we seemed to be too stuck on national interests,” our minister answered. - And now we think more about universal values. But if you have any ideas and you can tell us how to determine our national interests, then I will be very grateful to you.
With a proposal to indicate to the Russian minister what national interests his country had, Nixon was embarrassed. The former US president later praised the position of the Russian minister:
- When I was vice president and then president, I wanted everyone to know that I was a “son of a bitch” and that I would fight hard in the name of American interests. And this one, when the Soviet Union has just collapsed, when the new Russia needs to be defended and strengthened, wants to show everyone what a wonderful, pleasant person he is.
What Nixon! Even Mikhail Gorbachev, who was many and justly scolded for unjustified concessions to foreigners, was amazed at Kozyrev's servility to the West. “Under him, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs turned into a branch of the State Department,” said the ex-head of state.
Source: https://vk.com/history_0z
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