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courage is contagious

Viewing cable 06RIGA519, AMBASSADOR BAILEY'S MEETING WITH RUSSIAN

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06RIGA519 2006-07-03 07:28 2011-08-30 01:44 CONFIDENTIAL Embassy Riga
VZCZCXRO7391
PP RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHRA #0519/01 1840728
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 030728Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY RIGA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3106
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RIGA 000519 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/29/2016 
TAGS: PREL ETRD ENRG ECON WTO RS LG
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR BAILEY'S MEETING WITH RUSSIAN 
AMBASSADOR KALYUZHNY 
 
REF: RIGA 481 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Catherine Todd Bailey.  Reason 1.4 (d) 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY:  In a June 29 meeting, Ambassador Bailey and 
Russian Ambassador Kalyuzhny discussed the security situation 
in Iraq; energy security; Latvian-Russian bilateral 
relations; the NATO Summit; the recent visit of Latvian 
President Vaira Vike-Freiberga to the U.S.; and Russia's 
desire to join the WTO.  Although Kalyuzhny was less 
bombastic towards Latvia than in previous meetings, he was 
still downbeat on the bilateral relationship.  He was also 
more negative toward the U.S. than in previous encounters. 
Kalyuzhny expressed strong and rather bizarre concern about 
the public diplomacy events surrounding the NATO Summit.  END 
SUMMARY 
 
2. (U) Ambassador Bailey met with Russian Ambassador Victor 
Kalyuzhny at the residence on the morning of June 29. 
Kalyuzhny was accompanied by his DCM and political counselor. 
 Embassy pol/econ chief and pol/econoff (notetaker) 
accompanied Ambassador Bailey.  Embassy FSN served as 
translator. 
 
Security in Iraq 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
3. (U) Ambassador Bailey opened the meeting by extending 
condolences on behalf of the United States for the murders of 
four Russian diplomats in Iraq.  Ambassador Kalyuzhny noted 
that Putin considers these murders to be a serious security 
lesson for protecting diplomats and a problem that needs to 
be corrected.  Kalyuzhny also said that fighting terror is 
something that the U.S. and Russia can do jointly. 
 
Energy Security 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
4. (C) Kalyuzhny, former Russian minister for fuel and 
energy, spoke at length on energy security in the context of 
the G8 Summit.  He contended that other countries are 
politicizing energy security; Russia views it as an economic 
issue.  "We have only what nature has given us, the rest is 
controlled by market forces," he stated.  He urged the U.S. 
to encourage Europe to refrain from stoking the political 
fires on the issue.  Ambassador Bailey noted that Latvian PM 
Kalvitis stressed the importance of Russia in the energy 
sector when he was recently in St. Petersburg.  Ambassador 
Kalyuzhny replied with no sense of irony that this was a 
technique of the Latvians to avoid focusing on important 
things by talking about "irrelevant" topics like energy 
security. 
 
Latvian-Russian Bilateral Relations 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
5. (C) Ambassador Bailey congratulated Kalyuzhny on what 
appear to be recent positive trends in the Latvian-Russian 
bilateral relations with the meetings of Latvian PM Kalvitis 
with Russian PM Fradkov and President Putin (reftel). 
Kalyuzhny said that the improvements started when President 
Vaira Vike-Freiberga (VVF) visited Russia last year for the 
May 9 celebrations.  However, he said that progress stalled 
when Latvia added a unilateral declaration to the bilateral 
border treaty.  Kalyuzhny also stressed that it was due to 
the efforts of the Russian Embassy in Latvia that these 
meetings occurred.  (Comment: GOL officials, on the contrary, 
cite the Embassy here and the Russian MFA as among the 
biggest obstacles to the meeting with Fradkov.  End comment.) 
 Kalyuzhny indicted that Russian PM Fradkov did not want to 
meet with Kalvitis, not because of who Kalvitis is 
personally, but because the top level of Latvian politicians 
make it difficult.  Kalyuzhny then gave the example of VVF's 
recent visit to Finland and her alleged comment that Russia 
is not a trusted economic partner.  After several inquiries 
by Ambassador Bailey on the format of the Intergovernmental 
Commission, Kalyuzhny downplayed it by saying the proposed 
bilateral Commission is just the standard way Russia 
organizes bilateral commissions.  There are 54 elements of 
the Russian government represented in this group, which has 
subgroups on different bilateral issues.  Despite repeated 
interest by the Ambassador, Kalyuzhny gave no hint of when 
Russia might name their cochair, as the Latvians have already 
done. 
 
The NATO Summit 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
6. (C) Unexpectedly, Ambassador Kalyuzhny then raised 
concerns over the public meetings that will occur on the 
margins of the NATO Summit.  His DCM specifically complained 
about the theme of "global partnership."  Interestingly, he 
did not say anything about the summit (Track I) agenda 
itself, and even displayed little interest.  However, 
Kalyuzhny and his DCM showed concern over the conversations. 
Ambassador Bailey explained that attempts to highlight a host 
 
RIGA 00000519  002 OF 002 
 
 
country on the margins of a Summit are not uncommon. 
Kalyuzhny said Russia was "against" the second track of 
meetings because it is believed that regardless of the agenda 
topic for the discussions, the Latvians would ensure that the 
dialogue would inevitably turn to historical relations and 
criticism of the Soviet Union/Russia.  He claimed that VVF 
has set this negative tone in the past that others have 
followed. 
 
President Vaira Vike-Freiberga's Visit to the U.S. 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
7. (C) Ambassador Bailey informed Kalyuzhny that President 
Vaira Vike-Freiberga is, in Ambassador Bailey's views, very 
positive and focused on moving Latvia forward, and this was 
particularly reflected in her address before the Joint 
Session of Congress in early June.  Kalyuzhny expressed 
interest in VVF's trip to Washington, and Ambassador Bailey 
informed him that VVF met with Secretary Rice, Vice President 
Cheney, and President Bush.  Ambassador Kalyuzhny replied 
that VVF said very unpleasant things about Russia in her 
"secret interview" with CBS (an interview that no one at post 
or at VVF's office is aware of, despite attempts in 
researching it).  Apparently, the Russian Embassy in 
Washington is reporting that this so called interview 
contained "inappropriate" comments on Russia. 
 
Russia's Desire to Join the WTO 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
8. (C) Ambassador Kalyuzhny asked why the United States is 
not allowing Russia to join the WTO.  He claimed to know the 
answer to his own question saying that, "these days you 
cannot let everybody in."  Kalyuzhny followed this by 
pointing out that now China is a member and is moving into 
all markets, saying it seemed to him that the U.S. is scared 
that Russia would also dominate global markets.  He stressed 
that Russia would very much like to join the WTO, and 
caustically remarked that if the U.S. is going to block 
Russia's WTO accession, then the U.S. should refrain from 
criticizing Russia for not being a WTO member. 
 
9. (C) COMMENT: During this meeting Kalyuzhny was less 
critical about the Latvians, except for the President, than 
he has been in the past.  However, he cautioned the short 
term prospects for improvement in the bilateral relationship. 
 Although he was notably more critical of the United States 
and USG policies, he nevertheless continues to very much 
value these discussions and appreciates the work of both the 
U.S. and Russia on related security concerns.  This was the 
first formal meeting with Ambassador Kalyuzhny in several 
months, and both graciously agreed to keep the lines of 
communication open.  Kalyuzhny, never brief in his remarks, 
can be pointed in his comments and when he arrived in Riga 
two years ago his bombastic style and harsh criticism of the 
Latvians made for a rough start.  In recent months, the 
Ambassador has noticed that Kalyuzhny has become more engaged 
with the Latvians and the diplomatic community, and appears 
more communicative and open at events. 
 
Bailey