Not quite a revolution

„By now, I think we have learned that Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has vast ambitions. Among them is the end of American government as we know it. On his Web site he describes the leaked U.S. diplomatic cables in dramatic and sinister terms, evoking the lost ideals of George Washington and claiming that they demonstrate a profound gap between the United States' »public persona and what it says behind closed doors«. Alas, the cables don't live up to that promise. On the contrary - as others have noted - they show that U.S. diplomats pursue pretty much the same goals in private as they do in public, albeit using more caustic language.

But the cables should in theory raise more far serious problems for governments that pursue quite different goals in public than in private. For example, the cables should create trouble for Vladimir Putin, the prime minister of Russia. One of them describes his country as »a mafia state«. In another, an American official reports that the opaque operations of Russia's fourth-largest oil company are designed to benefit Putin personally. Yet another reports that Russian officials laugh at U.S. efforts to prevent arms sales to countries such as Iran, Sudan, Syria and Venezuela. Why? »Russia attaches importance to... the diplomatic doors that weapon sales open, to the ill-gotten gains that these sales reap for corrupt senior officials«.

The cables should also create trouble for Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, not least because of his relationship with Putin. One cable from Rome claims »Berlusconi and his cronies are profiting personally and handsomely« from energy deals with Russia, and says the prime ministers' personal interests have warped Italy's foreign policy: »The Italian government is deeply ambivalent about energy projects that would help Europe diversify its energy imports, while at the same time it is supportive of other projects that would increase Europe's Russian energy dependency«. Elsewhere, Berlusconi is depicted at muddled, erratic and exhausted from too much late-night debauchery. At one point, he nods off during a high-level meeting.”