Russia's stance on Syria

[Resurrection Man]

Could I please implore you all to consider emailing the Russian Embassy to voice your concern about Russia's continued lack of support for UN resolutions to resolve the situation in Syria. While Russia (and China) continue to block attempts to resolve this humanitarian crisis, more people continue to get maimed, tortured and killed. If you do email them then you will get a boiler-plate BS response and so please persevere and pick the response to pieces and email them back again. I'd like to see their email inbox implode with dissent.

If you read the BS on Russia's foreign policy here http://www.rusemb.org.uk/foreignpolicy/271 then you will see that Russia continues to be the most egregious hypocrite of the worst order. For example, they state
we would like to reiterate our principled and consistent stance against unilateral sanctions against Syria. We regard them as the implementation of actions that violate the sovereignty of states, the principle of noninterference in internal affairs,

Two words. South Ossetia. You might even throw in Chechnya if so minded.

No, there are three reasons why Russia is refusing to support the UN. They have three vested interests in continuing to support the Assad regime.

First - OIL. Not buying it but selling it to the Syrians and at inflated prices.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...7BF1LI20111216

Second - ARMS SALES. Russia is Syria's number one supplier.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...81K13420120221

They did say that they intended to suspend new arms sales. Confirmation of this statement is missing. The Russians are remarkably silent on this and no evidence to suggest that they are going to honour this.

So please ask them if there is any truth in this announcement to suspend new arms sales

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8680RQ20120709

And lastly, TARTUS. Tartus is Russia's last naval base in the region and saves them the time and effort in having to sail back to the Black Sea. It also serves as a staging post for any militaristic ambitions they may have.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartus

So please do consider emailing them. The email address is below.

foreignpolicy@rusemb.org.uk

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

[amateur51]

A remarkable assemblage RM.

I am a naïf in these matters but I wonder if it would be worthwhile setting up one of those e-petitions that we all sign from time to time.?

Or perhaps approaching organisations with a track record in e-petitions like avaaz or 38degrees?

In that way you'd get a large number of signatures en bloc rather then a few individual howls of protest.

I'm not sure how susceptible President Putin is to external pressure but I'd say it was certainly worth a try. Suitably phrased I'd sign it

[Resurrection Man]

Am, many thanks for the positive response. Much appreciated.

I'm not sure what a petition would achieve. Who would one be petitioning? Whereas lots and lots of emails challenging them might help a little. I am led to believe that they do fuss a bit about this line of contact.

[JohnSkelton]

Putin is in London - now would be a good time to organise a protest outside the Russian Embassy? For an e-mail campaign Amnesty UK have some suggestions http://action.amnesty.org.uk/ea-acti...paign.id=13500

[amateur51]

Putin is in London - now would be a good time to organise a protest outside the Russian Embassy? For an e-mail campaign Amnesty UK have some suggestions http://action.amnesty.org.uk/ea-acti...paign.id=13500

Many thanks JS - I've sent off my protest using the letter provided by Amnesty. It was dead easy to do & I'd urge other Board members to do likewise.

And thanks again for raising this RM

[Resurrection Man]

Many thanks for that link, John.

I amended mine to question Russia's sincerity in trying to resolve this and included my three points above.

[PJPJ]

......

I'm not sure how susceptible President Putin is to external pressure but I'd say it was certainly worth a try. Suitably phrased I'd sign it

I'm pretty sure he is not susceptible at all. There is, as you know by now, a UN resolution condemning the Security Council.....

An e-petition would be welcome.

[Beef Oven]

A remarkable assemblage RM.

I am a naïf in these matters but I wonder if it would be worthwhile setting up one of those e-petitions that we all sign from time to time.?

Or perhaps approaching organisations with a track record in e-petitions like avaaz or 38degrees?

In that way you'd get a large number of signatures en bloc rather then a few individual howls of protest.

I'm not sure how susceptible President Putin is to external pressure but I'd say it was certainly worth a try. Suitably phrased I'd sign it

I don't think that Putin will be troubled by an e-petition, but it will make us all feel a lot better once we've signed it.