ABSTRACT
The opposition to the capitalist West which emanated from the USSR and the socialist bloc has been extinguished, giving the West a largely free hand around the world. The strategy of deception, in turn, has been especially manifest with respect to the former Yugoslavia. In February 1994 Russia criticized NATO air strikes against the Bosnian Serbs for their alleged bombing of the Sarajevo market, but within hours approved of the strikes and retracted its demand that a UNSC vote be taken before such strikes. The disjunction between their allegiance to the West and the need to appear anti-Western became so serious that the leaders were forced to devise varied means to perpetuate the grand deception. This chapter concludes that Russia is dependent on the West. Russian military spending declined by some 80" in 1992 alone, a stipulation of the first Russia-IMF agreement which imposed "stiff conditions" dictating huge defense cuts.
