Augusta Alternative -> Growing U.S.

Growing U.S. - Russia tensions

Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

synergy

Posted: Sep 8 2008, 05:20 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Russia aims to corner energy market: U.S. official

QUOTE

By Tabassum Zakaria
5:58 am EDT Mon 08 Sep 2008

Russia aims to extend its control over energy deliveries to the West and it is important that European countries push forward on efforts to diversify routes for oil and gas supplies, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.

As Vice President Dick Cheney visited Italy to seek support for Georgia after its brief war with Russia, the official, said: "The fact is Russia has worked hard to try to corner the market, so to speak, and is working to foreclose options to transit for those energy products across Russia.

"They want everything to come out through Russia and a lot of us think it's more important that there be diverse means of gaining access to those resources," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"No one country ought to be able to totally dominate those deliveries."

Italy was the last stop on a weeklong trip for Cheney that began with Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine to reinforce U.S. support for the former Soviet states after the conflict between Tbilisi and Moscow.

The crisis erupted in early August when Georgia tried to retake the breakaway region of South Ossetia and Russia responded with overwhelming force. Cheney, in a weekend speech in Cernobbio, Italy, called Moscow's actions "brutality against a neighbor."

In those remarks, he also accused Russia, the world's second largest oil producer, of using "energy as a tool of force and manipulation" in Central Asia, the Caucasus and elsewhere by threatening to interrupt the flow of oil or natural gas.

NABUCCO PROJECT

Europe and the United States are concerned about transit routes for oil and gas through eastern European countries which are seen as alternatives to Russian supplies.

"We think diversity of supply is important," the U.S. official told reporters traveling with Cheney.

Azerbaijan and Georgia are links in a Western-backed energy corridor that bypasses Russia, which the West fears could be in jeopardy following Moscow's military actions on Georgia.

In discussions with private sector representatives and public officials, "there were concerns expressed that one of the things that happened as a result of the Russian military operations in Georgia was to raise questions about the security of that trans-Georgian corridor for moving Caspian energy resources out to the West," the U.S. official said.

Europe is interested in finding ways to move forward with projects like the Nabucco pipeline project, the official said of a U.S.- and EU-backed project that would take Azeri gas to Europe through Georgia and Turkey. But concern about instability in the Caucasus has been scaring off investors.

Europe also wants to ensure that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which ships 850,000 barrels per day of high quality Azeri crude from the Caspian to the Mediterranean, remains open and functioning, the U.S. official said.

(Editing by Ralph Boulton)

synergy

Posted: Sep 8 2008, 08:50 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Russia to send naval squadron, planes to Venezuela

QUOTE

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer
8:56 am EDT Mon 08 Sep 2008

Russia said Monday it will send a naval squadron and anti-submarine patrol planes to Venezuela this year for a joint military exercise in the Caribbean, a deployment that comes amid increasingly tense relations with the United States.

Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said the exercise was planned before Russia's war last month with Georgia "and it's unrelated to the current political situation and the developments in the Caucasus."

"If this exercise takes place, it won't be directed against interests of any third party," Nesterenko said at a briefing.

The announcement was made just a week after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned that Russia would mount an unspecified response to recent U.S. aid shipments to Georgia.

Nesterenko said the Peter the Great missile cruiser and three other Russian navy ships would visit Venezuela before the year's end, and would be joined by a unit of long-range anti-submarine patrol aircraft.

He did not say how many planes would be sent, but said they would be "temporarily based at one of Venezuela's air bases."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had announced the maneuvers in his Sunday television and radio program, saying the Russian vessels would call on Venezuelan ports in late November or December.

Chavez, who has cultivated close ties with Moscow and placed big orders for Russian jets, helicopters and other weapons, has repeatedly warned that the U.S. Navy poses a threat to Venezuela.

Diplomatic relations between Caracas and Washington have been tense for years. U.S. officials have warned that Chavez poses a threat to democracy, while Chavez has emerged as Latin America's most outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy.

The socialist leader ridiculed any U.S. concerns over the joint exercise with the Russian forces, saying, "Go ahead and squeal, Yankees."

Nesterenko said the joint exercise would not be directed against any third country.

Russia has been angered, however, over the recent deployment of U.S. Navy ships to the Black Sea to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia, which was ravaged by a five-day war with Russia last month.

Russian officials said past U.S. military assistance for Georgia had encouraged the Caucasus country to launch its offensive in South Ossetia, and argued that the new shipments could be a cover for weapons deliveries.

U.S. officials have dismissed those accusations, saying the ships are carrying only humanitarian supplies such as blankets and powered milk.

Putin last week warned that Russia would respond to the U.S. aid shipments to Georgia, but he did not say how.

"We don't understand what American ships are doing on the Georgian shores, but this is a question of taste, it's a decision by our American colleagues," Putin said. "The second question is why the humanitarian aid is being delivered on naval vessels armed with the newest rocket systems."

Russia's reaction to the U.S. deployment to the Black Sea "will be calm, without any sort of hysteria. But of course, there will be an answer," Putin said.

synergy

Posted: Sep 8 2008, 02:25 PM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Bush administration yanks Russia nuclear pact

QUOTE

By Sue Pleming
Reuters 2:11 pm EDT Mon 08 Sept 2008

President George W. Bush on Monday froze a lucrative civilian nuclear pact with Russia, the first big penalty imposed on Moscow after its war with Georgia but one that can be reversed.

"The president intends to notify Congress that he has today rescinded his prior determination regarding the U.S.-Russia agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation, the so-called 1-2-3 Agreement," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement read by spokesman Sean McCormack.

While Bush's decision to withdraw the agreement from congressional review was seen as punitive, it was also meant to preserve the deal, a senior U.S. official said.

That official said the administration wanted to ensure the accord did not go to a vote in Congress, where it could have been rejected following Russia's military action in Georgia. If rejected, it would be difficult for a new presidential administration to pursue the agreement in the future.

"It (the nuclear accord) was likely to be killed simply as a protest in the Senate and so therefore what we are doing is rescinding the certificate that he (President Bush) had to give due to the situation in Georgia. Thus he is rendering this thing not legislatively viable," said the senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"It is something that we can reverse at any time either by sending a new certificate or lifting this action," he added. "What it does is freezes the status of it."

Bush or a future president could resubmit it for consideration by Congress, which would have 90 legislative days to block it.

Rice also made clear the decision could be reversed.

"We make this decision with regret. Unfortunately given the current environment the time is not right for this agreement. We will reevaluate the situation at a later date as we follow developments closely," her statement said.

In Moscow, a nuclear official also said it was the only way to save the deal and the White House had explained this.

"We have recently received a letter from the White House where they mentioned that this was the only way to save this agreement for the new administration," the official said.

"Otherwise the agreement would be definitely blocked in the current political conditions which would have meant practically starting the entire work from the beginning again," the source said.

The deal was aimed at lifting Cold War limits on trade and opening the U.S. civilian nuclear market and Russia's uranium fields to companies from both countries. Lawmakers in Congress had already raised concerns about it before the Georgia war.

The collapse of the deal is the first tangible penalty Washington has imposed on Russia after its war with Georgia over the two breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which are closely allied with Moscow.

Georgia tried to retake control of South Ossetia in early August but its troops were quickly repelled by Russian forces. In the battle, Moscow's troops drove deep into Georgian territory, drawing international condemnations.

Despite agreeing to a French-brokered ceasefire, Moscow has kept troops on Georgian soil, saying its remaining forces were peacekeepers allowed by the pact to stay behind.

Washington has been considering a range of penalties to impose on Russia, including sanctions, but U.S. business interests have warned the White House not to go too far with punishment for fear of damaging long-term ties.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander and Jeremy Pelofsky, editing by Kristin Roberts)

synergy

Posted: Sep 12 2008, 08:09 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Medvedev "would attack Georgia even if on NATO track"

QUOTE

Reuters 8:48 am EDT Fri 12 Sep 2008

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that even if Georgia were on a firm path to NATO membership, he would not hesitate to attack it under circumstances similar to last month's conflict.

Speaking to the annual meeting of the Valdai Club, a group of Russia experts, Medvedev also said he believed that Georgia's August 8 attack on the pro-Russian breakaway region of South Ossetia was Russia's equivalent of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

"Immediately after the events in the Caucasus it occurred to me that August 8 was for us almost what 9/11 was for the United States," Medvedev said.

The Kremlin leader again attacked NATO's plans for further expansion into neighboring Ukraine and Georgia. He said putting these countries on an official track to membership would not help them in the event of another conflict with Russia.

"Just by getting closer to Russia's borders, NATO is not becoming stronger," Medvedev said. "...what if Georgia had a NATO membership action plan? I would not wait for a second in making the decision I made at that point.

Georgian membership, he added, would be a destabilizing factor, both for the Western military alliance and for the volatile Caucasus region.

"The situation is not fair to Russia, it is humiliating for Russia. We are not going to tolerate this any longer," he added.

The Russian president balanced his remarks by saying he did not believe the Caucasus crisis had caused a faultline in relations between Russia and the West, which would lead to another long period of confrontation.

"We don't need this," he said.

(Reporting by Janet McBride, writing by Michael Stott, editing by Christian Lowe)

synergy

Posted: Sep 15 2008, 09:33 PM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

NATO can't be cowed by Kremlin, U.S. says

QUOTE

International Herald Tribune

By Dan Bilefsky and Stephen Castle
Monday, September 15, 2008

TBILISI, Georgia: Georgia's border disputes with the Russian-backed breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia should not be used as an excuse by the West to keep Georgia out of NATO, the U.S. ambassador to the alliance said Monday.

The NATO charter stipulates that potential members must resolve outstanding border issues before joining, and that would effectively block Georgia's aspirations. But the American ambassador, Kurt Volker, said in an interview that if Russian attempts to exert influence over the enclaves were used to keep Georgia out of the Atlantic community, then the West would be "giving Russia a veto over Georgia's future."

At a two-day meeting here, the NATO secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and ambassadors from all 26 members inaugurated a new NATO-Georgia commission, which Georgia hopes will help clear a path for its eventual membership in the alliance.

But the recent war between Georgia and Russia has exposed deep fissures within NATO over how to respond to a newly assertive Russia, and de Hoop Scheffer made no commitment on when Georgia would be invited to join the military alliance.

Meanwhile, in Brussels, European Union foreign ministers meeting Monday sought to intensify pressure on Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgia by affirming plans to send at least 200 peacekeepers to the Caucasus by the end of the month and promising Georgia up to €500 million, or about $710 million, to help it rebuild parts of the country destroyed in the conflict with Russia in August.

Russia last month recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in defiance of Georgia and the West. Moscow has said it will maintain 7,600 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia - more than twice the number it had there before the war. The United States and the European Union say this constitutes a breach of the cease-fire, which calls for all sides to withdraw to their positions before the hostilities began Aug. 8.

NATO diplomats said that some members of the alliance were increasingly concerned about the recent peace deal brokered by the EU for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia because it allowed Moscow to maintain troops inside the breakaway regions in a violation of Georgia's territorial integrity and in defiance of international law. Moreover, Moscow has insisted that the EU's 200 peacekeepers remain in areas just outside the territories, effectively preventing them from monitoring Russia.

Georgia, for its part, is emphatic that EU monitors be allowed to maintain the peace inside South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where ethnic tensions have risen since the end of the war.

A NATO diplomat, requesting anonymity because he had not been authorized to speak on the matter, said: "Unless the EU imposes conditions on Russia and is allowed to deploy across Ossetia and Abkhazia, then this risks becoming a frozen conflict in which the EU monitors will be monitoring the Georgians, while the Russians can do what they want."

Nineteen European nations, including France, Germany and Britain, have promised to contribute to the civilian mission designed to monitor the cease-fire, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said at the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

The mission will be based in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, and, at least initially, the peacekeepers will not enter South Ossetia and Abkhazia, although the EU hopes they will have access to these areas eventually. Kouchner said the cease-fire agreement, which was negotiated by the French, was "not perfect" but marked a step forward by laying down a timetable for Russian withdrawal.

NATO has indicated it would make further ties with Moscow dependent on the withdrawal of Russian forces to their positions before the conflict, as was stipulated in the cease-fire. In particular, de Hoop Scheffer has indicated that, as long as Russian troops remained in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, NATO would be forced to suspend the NATO-Russia council, where Russian officials and NATO ambassadors regularly meet.

Some European Union countries, led by Germany and France, have moved to block the Bush administration's efforts to bring Georgia and Ukraine into the alliance, mindful that the war last month could have led to a military confrontation with Russia, if Georgia had already been in the alliance.

In April, NATO declined to grant Georgia a road map for membership, but angered Russia by saying that Georgia could eventually join the alliance, whose central precept of collective defense stipulates that an attack on one member is an attack on all. The alliance promised during that summit meeting in Bucharest to consider granting Georgia a path to NATO membership - known as the Membership Action Plan - in December.

Volker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, was cautious on when Tbilisi would get a firm commitment to join.

"We stand with Georgia," he said. "We want to be helpful. The actual decision on whether December is the time for the Membership Action Plan or not is something that will be taken later."

Security analysts argued that Georgia's recent war with Russia had hindered rather than helped its NATO ambitions.

Tomas Valasek, director of foreign policy and defense for the Center for European Reform in London, said the idea of the NATO ambassadors' visit to Georgia was not to try to make Georgia feel safer, but to underline that Russia could not block its ambitions for membership of the West's alliance.

However, he added that the war in the Caucasus made it less likely that Georgia would be offered a path to NATO membership later this year.

"One of the arguments on whether countries are ready for membership is whether they project stability," Valasek said. "Some countries will argue that they did not project stability on Aug. 7 and the divisions we saw at NATO's Bucharest summit may have hardened."

Stephen Castle reported from Brussels. Michael Schwirtz contributed reporting from Moscow.

synergy

Posted: Sep 18 2008, 05:57 PM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Venezuela-Russia ties deepen despite US pressure

QUOTE

By IAN JAMES, Associated Press Writer
4:19 pm EDT Thu 18 Sep 2008

Venezuela and Russia are strengthening their strategic alliance with new plans to cooperate on oil production, weapons and even wireless technology, the governments said as two visiting Russian Tu-160 bombers left for home on Thursday.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, traveling to Moscow next week at the invitation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, is planning new oil projects with Russian companies and joint military exercises with Russian warplanes and ships in the Caribbean in November.

Venezuela also is in talks to buy Russian air defense systems and armored vehicles, and has expressed interest in the new Su-35 fighter, due off assembly lines in 2010, said Sergei Chemezov, general director of the Russian state holding company Rostekhnologii, according to Russia's Interfax news agency.

The allies have sealed more than US$4 billion in defense contracts since 2005. Venezuela has bought Sukhoi fighter planes, Mi-17 helicopters, and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, most of which have already been delivered.

Chemezov spoke to reporters in Caracas while accompanying Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin. He stressed that while energy cooperation is paramount, the military relationship also is strengthening.

Russia also plans to help Venezuela build factories to make ships, cars, rifles and ammunition, and a center to train pilots and fix helicopters is in the works. Russian officials even offered to install broadband wireless networks to provide cheap Internet and telephone service to Caracas, Chemezov told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency.

The countries' military cooperation is growing "more solid every day," Venezuelaan Defense Minister Gen. Gustavo Rangel said.

Their alliance was mocked on Thursday by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said Russia is only isolating itself.

The United States is confident that its own relations with Western Hemisphere countries "will in no way be diminished by a few, aging Blackjack bombers visiting one of Latin America's few autocracies," she said.

Chavez, who expelled the U.S. ambassador to Caracas last week while accusing Washington of backing a plot against him, told reporters this week that the alliance doesn't pose a threat to any other country, and that he welcomes Russian help in research, economic development and defense technology.

Russia's economic influence is clearly expanding in the Americas. Bolivia announced Thursday that it would sign an oil and natural gas exploration deal with Gazprom. Terms of the deal weren't immediately disclosed.

And Sechin announced that five of Russia's biggest oil companies are looking to form a consortium to increase Latin American operations. State-controlled Rosneft, Lukoil, Gazprom Neft, Surgutneftegaz and TNK-BP hope to build a US$6.5 billion refinery to process Venezuela's tar-like heavy crude, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Such an investment could help Venezuela, the world's ninth biggest oil producer, wean itself off the U.S. refineries it now depends on to process much of its crude. Already, Chavez has moved to push out private companies including Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips while striking new oil development agreements with state oil companies from Iran and China.

Russian companies Gazprom and Lukoil also signed agreements with Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA to jointly explore several Orinoco fields.

___

Associated Press writers Desmond Butler in Washington, Theresa Bradley in Mexico City, Dan Keane in La Paz, Bolivia, and Fabiola Sanchez in Caracas contributed to this report.

synergy

Posted: Sep 21 2008, 01:46 PM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Mighty Russian Black Sea fleet making waves

QUOTE

By Tom Lasseter, McClatchy Newspapers
Fri Sep 19, 5:38 PM ET

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine � As the Kremlin seeks to reassert its sphere of influence around its borders and beyond, this home port for Russia's Black Sea fleet � marooned in the south of Ukraine after the breakup of the Soviet Union � has moved to the center of tensions between Russia and U.S. allies in the region.

Some Ukrainian politicians worry that Russia will stoke anti-Western sentiments in Sevastopol and cities around it on the Crimean peninsula to create an opportunity to annex the area, the same way Moscow did with two breakaway provinces in Georgia last month, or at least use its considerable influence here to push the central government in Kiev to drop plans to join the European Union and NATO .

Either move would heighten the rising tensions between Russia and the United States , which have returned to Cold War levels over the past year.

Georgia and Ukraine , with American backing, angered the Russian leadership with their NATO aspirations. If they were to join, Russia's Black Sea coastline would be surrounded by members of the military organization.

Sergei Zayats, the administrator of Sevastopol's largest district, said he thought the Russians would be willing to resort to force to keep their ships docked in Crimea, where their fleet has operated since the 1780s. "The events in Georgia show that this may happen at any time," said Zayats, who was appointed by Kiev .

Russia has said it has no plans along those lines.

"This is a myth brought to you from other countries that Crimea will be next," Vsevolod Loskutov , the number two man in the Russian Embassy to Ukraine , told journalists last week. "Both Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have repeated many times that we highlight our respect to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine ."

The tension over Crimea is complicated by the intertwined histories of Ukraine and Russia .

The region belonged to Russia until 1954, when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev handed it over to Ukraine . At the time, the difference was largely semantic, but when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many in Crimea would have rather not become part of an independent Ukraine .

In interviews on the streets of Sevastopol, college students, engineers and housewives alike said they sympathized with Russia far more than with Viktor Yushchenko , Ukraine's pro-Western president. Any move to join NATO , they said, almost certainly would lead to a backlash.

"The majority of people here are against NATO ," said Viktor Kiselyov , a local artist. "The reason is that NATO is confronting Russia , and Russia is us."

To smooth over the differences, Ukraine has allowed the region to become a semi-autonomous republic, bound by Ukrainian law but largely self-governed.

Earlier this year, Russian state news wires carried quotes by a senior member of the lower house of parliament in Moscow suggesting that Khrushchev's decision might be revisited.

"If Ukraine's admission to NATO is accelerated, Russia could raise the question of which country the Crimea should be a part of," Alexei Ostrovsky , the head of the Duma's committee on regional political affairs, was quoted as saying in April. "The Russian Federation has legal grounds to revise agreements signed under Khrushchev."

While the Russian government denies issuing passports to residents of Crimea, a tactic used in Georgia to bolster claims that the Kremlin had to save its citizens there, the prosecutor's office in Sevastopol says that an investigation that started two months ago already has found 1,500 residents with both Russian and Ukrainian passports, in violation of Ukrainian law.

Some of those passports were from the early 1990s, when the question of statehood was unclear, but others were issued during the past few years, said Alexander Rubstov, an official in the prosecutor's office, who didn't say how many passports fell into each of those categories. Rubstov said the inquiry in the city of about 430,000 residents still had a long way to go, and the numbers could rise.

Roman Zvarych , a top official in Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party, said he thought Russia had passed out "something in the neighborhood of several tens of thousands" of passports in Crimea, a charge Moscow has denied.

"What happens if in the Crimea these people carrying dual citizenship all of a sudden start saying they want to join Russia ?" Zvarych asked in an interview in his Kiev office. "We would have to clamp down to ensure our territorial sovereignty."

That, he said, would give Russia an opening to exert serious diplomatic or military pressure.

By treaty, the fleet is supposed to leave Sevastopol and the rest of Crimea by 2017, but the Russian navy has shown little sign that it's planning to do so.

During a recent news media tour organized by the Kremlin, naval officers showed off ships that dated to the early 1980s and earlier, and a massive artillery battery that last fired about half a century ago. While the equipment paled in comparison with modern Western militaries, it would be more than enough to ensure that the Ukrainians couldn't force the Russians to vacate.

Giving up Crimea would "be like a defeat in battle," said Capt. Igor Dygalo , a chief navy spokesman. Rear Adm. Andrei Baranov , the deputy commander of the fleet, said his government would honor legal obligations but added that: "History can't be crossed out."

Suggestions that Ukraine may want the fleet to leave sooner � a potentially crucial step in its NATO efforts � have been ignored. Ukrainian court orders to hand over control of more than 70 lighthouses, antennae stations and navigational sites in Crimea and nearby areas also have been brushed aside.

"To draw any line here to issue an order to leave, this is very difficult," Dygalo said. "What do you expect us to say now? That we shall leave? But this is not true."

On the second day of the Kremlin media tour in Sevastopol, two Orthodox priests led a group of reporters around a church dedicated to fallen sailors from the Russian fleet. They were careful to say that Russia and the U.S.-backed Ukrainian government should live in peace and understanding.

But by the third or fourth shot of vodka during a round of toasts at lunch, Father Igor Bebin stood up and said that during the Crimean War about 150 years ago, "the West shuddered when Russia showed them the sword and the Black Sea turned red with blood."

And now, Bebin said in a thundering voice, the sword of Russia was finally shining once again. The Russian naval officers standing beside him shouted in agreement.

More from McClatchy :

Russian leaders talk big, but army and economy are weak

Kremlin-watchers warn of direct U.S.- Russia clash

Ukrainians wonder what Georgia crisis means for them

Russian parliament recognizes breakaway Georgian enclaves

synergy

Posted: Sep 24 2008, 04:28 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Russia Won�t Meet With U.S. on Iranian Nuclear Program

QUOTE

The New York Times

September 24, 2008
Russia Won�t Meet With U.S. on Iranian Nuclear Program
By STEVEN LEE MYERS

Russia said on Tuesday that it would not participate in a meeting with the United States this week to discuss Iran�s nuclear program, the most significant indication yet of how Russia�s war with Georgia has spoiled relations regarding other security issues.

Russia�s move apparently effectively scuttled the meeting.

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a biting statement that criticized remarks last week by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who declared that Russia had taken �a dark turn� away from democracy and respect for international norms.

�We would very much like Washington, in the end, to make up its mind what kind of relations they want with Moscow,� a ministry spokesman, Andrei Nesterenko, said in the statement. �If they want to punish Russia, that is one thing,� he said. �If they agree that we have common interests that need to be jointly advanced, then that�s another.�

Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said in a press briefing on Tuesday that the decision to cancel the meeting was mutual and not a game of tit for tat with the Russians. �We agree with them the time is not right to have a meeting at the ministerial level,� he said.

Russia and the United States, with China, Britain, France and Germany, had been scheduled to meet Thursday in New York to discuss additional punitive actions against Iran in the wake of a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency criticizing Iran�s failure to fully answer questions about its nuclear activities.

Russian officials had already made clear that they did not support new sanctions beyond three rounds already approved by the United Nations Security Council.

Ms. Rice is scheduled to meet her Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, on Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

A senior administration official, attending the meetings, acknowledged relations with Russia were in �a very rocky period� that tested the administration�s efforts to continue to cooperate on security issues even as President Bush and his aides strongly criticized Russian actions after the brief war with Georgia.

�They definitely don�t share the same sense of urgency that we and some of our European partners have,� the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter.

synergy

Posted: Sep 24 2008, 04:39 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Georgia in NATO not in US interest-former US envoy

QUOTE

Susan Cornwell
Reuters North American News Service

Sep 23, 2008 17:46 EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine is not in Washington's or the alliance's interest, former U.S. ambassador to Moscow Jack Matlock said Tuesday as he and other ex-U.S. envoys decried the poor state of ties with Russia.

At a gathering of five former U.S. and Russian ambassadors, Matlock, the last U.S. envoy to the Soviet Union, questioned a central tenet of Bush administration policy: its firm support for the NATO membership bids of both Georgia and Ukraine.

Some European countries have doubts about the policy, and some U.S. analysts have blamed it for helping provoke the brief war last month between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Since Russian troops crushed Georgian forces in that conflict, U.S. ties with Moscow have plummetted.

"To simply say every country should have the right to apply to any alliance it wants, that's true. But an alliance and its members should also have the right to determine whether it's in their interests to take in a member," Matlock told the forum in Washington, sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"I'm saying it's not in the United States' interests, and it's not in NATO's interests," said Matlock, who was ambassador to Moscow from 1987 to 1991 under former President George H.W. Bush, the current president's father.

Georgia had not settled territorial disputes with its neighbors, and appeared to want to use the NATO military alliance to help resolve them, Matlock said, in a reference to its conflict with Russia.

As for Ukraine, which like Georgia is a former Soviet republic, most of its population opposed membership and joining NATO would risk splitting the country, Matlock said.

He added that genuine strategic cooperation with Moscow, which vehemently opposes NATO membership for the two former Soviet republics, would be nearly impossible "as long as we're pushing this."

In New York on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Ukraine's foreign minister and pledged Washington's firm support for Ukraine's bid to join NATO.

But in Washington, Matlock and former U.S. envoys to Moscow James Collins and Arthur Hartman pointed to the consequences of ignoring Russia's attitude on NATO expansion.

They shared a platform with two former Soviet ambassadors to Washington, Alexander Bessmertnykh and Yuri Dubinin, who denounced the NATO expansion policy as a major irritant in relations.

"I personally believe that we need to go slow. ... If we don't, we will find that this is not something that stabilizes but rather divides," Collins said.

Hartman said that at the time the Soviet Union was collapsing in the early 90s, it was a "great failure" that the West didn't think creatively about a structure to replace NATO -- because the main purpose of its existence, to defend against a Soviet threat, no longer existed.

synergy

Posted: Sep 25 2008, 04:39 PM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Putin says ties with Latin America a top priority

QUOTE

By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer
4:55 pm EDT Thu 25 Sep 2008

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed Thursday to make relations with Latin America a top foreign policy priority, a pledge backed by the first Russian naval deployment to the Caribbean since the Cold War.

Putin greeted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, on his second trip to Russia in just over two months, with offers to discuss further arms sales to Venezuela and possibly helping it to develop nuclear energy.

Chavez's visit takes place as a Russian naval squadron sails to Venezuela, across the Caribbean Sea from the United States, in a pointed response to what the Kremlin has cast as threatening U.S. encroachment near its own borders.

Both men suggested their countries are working to decrease U.S. global influence.

"Latin America is becoming a noticeable link in the chain of the multi-polar world that is forming," Putin said at his suburban residence at the start of his talks with Chavez. "We will pay more and more attention to this vector of our economic and foreign policy."

Putin did not mention any specifics of potential Russian-Venezuelan military cooperation in his opening remarks, but Russian news reports said that Venezuela could buy Russian air defense missiles and more Sukhoi fighter jets.

Earlier Thursday, a Kremlin official who spoke on customary condition of anonymity said that Russia would grant Venezuela a $1 billion credit for the purchase of Russian weaponry in an effort to help Venezuela revamp its military forces.

Russia has signed contracts worth more than $4.4 billion with Venezuela since 2005 to supply arms including fighter jets, helicopters, and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles.

Putin did not specify what kind of cooperation Russia could offer Venezuela in the nuclear field, but Russia is aggressively promoting itself as a builder of nuclear power plants and supplier of fuel to nations seeking nuclear energy.

Chavez, who addressed Putin as "my dear friend Vladimir," said that stronger ties with Russia would help build a multi-polar world � a term Russia and Venezuela use to describe their shared opposition to the perceived U.S. global domination.

"I think that today more than ever before what you have said about a multi-polar world is becoming reality," Chavez told Putin. He said he brought greetings from Cuban leader Fidel Castro, another staunch U.S. enemy.

Both leaders have used criticism of the U.S. to boost their popularity at home and advance foreign policy objectives.

Russia is the latest leg in a tour taking Chavez to a number of nations whose governments are eager to counter U.S. global clout. He stopped briefly in Cuba on his way to China, where he touted agreements to increase oil exports and purchase military jets.

Signaling similar interests in Russia, Chavez said he and President Dmitry Medvedev will observe military exercises when they meet Friday in the southern Orenburg region. The region near Kazakhstan's border is home to oil industry facilities.

In an interview broadcast on Russian television before the visit, Chavez said that Venezuela and Latin America as a whole need "friends like Russia" to help them shed U.S. "domination" and ensure peace.

Russia has ramped up its cooperation with Caracas further since last month's war with Georgia, which has badly damaged Moscow's already strained ties with the West and particularly the United States.

Russia's deployment of warships to Venezuela for naval maneuvers came after the United States used naval ships to ferry aid to Georgia after the war � a mission Russian officials harshly criticized.

The Russian naval deployment follows a weeklong visit to Venezuela by a pair of Russian strategic bombers. On his Sunday TV and radio program, Chavez joked that he would be making his international tour aboard the "super-bombers that Medvedev loaned me."

Chavez has also talked about creating "a new strategic energy alliance" with between the oil-rich nations.

After visiting Venezuela this month, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said five major Russian oil companies are looking to form a consortium to increase Latin American operations and to build a $6.5 billion refinery to process Venezuelan crude.

Putin said that Russia's Gazprom state natural gas giant will launch its first drilling rig next month to tap Venezuela's offshore gas reserves.

synergy

Posted: Sep 27 2008, 04:03 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Russia to build missile defence shield and renew nuclear deterrence

QUOTE

From The Times of London
September 27, 2008

Tony Halpin in Moscow

Russia is to build new space and missile defence shields and put its armed forces on permanent combat alert, President Medvedev announced yesterday.

In a sharp escalation of military rhetoric, Mr Medvedev ordered a wholesale renovation of Russia�s nuclear deterrence and told military chiefs to draw up plans to reorganise the armed forces by December.

He said that Russia must modernise its nuclear defences within eight years, including the creation of a �system of air and space defence�.

The announcement puts Russia in a new arms race with the United States, which has infuriated the Kremlin by seeking to establish an anti-missile shield in eastern Europe. The US argues that the shield is aimed at rogue states such as Iran, but Russia is convinced that its own security is threatened.

Mr Medvedev told military commanders that �all combat formations must be upgraded to the permanent readiness category� by 2020. He added that Russia would begin �mass production of warships, primarily nuclear cruisers carrying cruise missiles and multi-purpose submarines�.

�A guaranteed nuclear deterrent system for various military and political circumstances must be provided by 2020,� he said after attending military exercises in the southern Urals region of Orenburg.

Tensions with the West have soared to new levels since Russia�s war with Georgia last month. Mr Medvedev told army chiefs that the conflict showed that �a war can flare up suddenly and can be absolutely real�.

The military build-up was announced as Russia wages a struggle to prevent Georgia and Ukraine entering Nato. The military alliance is due to consider fresh applications from the two former Soviet satellites in December.

Russia also openly declared its ambition to rival the US in Latin America yesterday as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised to sell nuclear technology to Venezuela.

Mr Medvedev met Venezuela�s President Hugo Chavez in Orenburg. Tthe Kremlin issued a statement calling their relations a �counterweight to US influence� and added that Venezuela sought �a widening of our presence in the region�.

�We are ready to consider opportunities for cooperating on the use of atomic energy,� Mr Putin told Mr Chavez during earlier talks in Moscow.

�Latin America is becoming a noticeable link in the whole chain of the emerging multipolar world. We will pay more and more attention to this area of our economic and foreign policy.�

The announcement of atomic assistance is certain to alarm Washington. Moscow has already angered the West by delivering enriched uranium to Iran for its Russian-built power station, amid fears that Tehran is secretly building a nuclear bomb.

Venezuela�s fiercely anti-American leader has long coveted his own nuclear energy programme, but insists that he has no desire to build an atomic bomb. He lavished praise on Mr Putin during his second visit to Russia in as many months.

�Today, like never before, all that you said on the multi-polar world becomes reality. Let us not lose time...The world is developing fast geopolitically,� Mr Chavez said.

The Kremlin despatched its nuclear-powered warship Peter the Great and a submarine destroyer, Admiral Chabanenko, to Venezuela on Monday for military exercises in the Caribbean, which is traditionally America�s backyard. It is Russia�s first naval mission to Latin America since the end of the Cold War.

The move was seen as a retort to the passage of American warships through the Black Sea to deliver aid to Georgia after the war. It came just days after Russian strategic nuclear bombers visited Venezuela for the first time, in what Mr Chavez described as a warning to the US.

Mr Medvedev said that the joint naval exercises between Russia and Venezuela would demonstrate �the strategic nature of our relations�. The Kremlin earlier announced that it was giving Venezuela a $1 billion loan to buy Russian weaponry.

Mr Chavez has already struck deals worth $4.4 billion since 2005 to buy jet fighters, tanks and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles. The two countries also edged closer in energy relations after Russia�s Gazprom and Venezuela�s state-run oil company struck a deal to create an �oil and gas consortium�.

Venezuela is the ninth largest oil producer in the world and a major supplier to the US, while Russia is the second largest oil exporter and has a quarter of global gas reserves. Mr Chavez said that the joint venture would be �the biggest oil consortium on the planet�.

synergy

Posted: Sep 27 2008, 07:38 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Russia Flexes Muscles in Oil Deal With Ch�vez

QUOTE

The New York Times

September 27, 2008
Russia Flexes Muscles in Oil Deal With Ch�vez
By ELLEN BARRY

MOSCOW � Russia continued its international muscle-flexing on Friday, strengthening its ties to Venezuela through a $1 billion military loan and a new oil consortium as it announced an upgrade of its own military focusing on nuclear deterrence and permanent combat readiness.

After a military exercise on Friday in the southern city of Orenburg, near the border with Kazakhstan, the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, declared that by 2020 Russia would construct new types of warships, including nuclear submarines carrying cruise missiles and an unspecified air and space defense system.

The moves point to continuing tension between Russia and the West after the five-day war in Georgia. Response in Washington was muted, as officials weighed whether the moves were merely a restatement of existing initiatives or should be interpreted as one early sign of a new, if slow-motion, arms race. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview with Reuters: �The balance of power in terms of nuclear deterrence is not going to be affected by those measures.�

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Pentagon news conference that his Russian counterparts had in the past made it �very clear to me that their intention was to modernize their strategic forces.� The current plans, he said, are consistent with Russian policy going �as far back as a couple of years.�

But the war in Georgia has clearly reordered priorities. With Europe and the United States united in condemnation of Russia�s military actions, Russian leaders began reaching out to countries like Venezuela, which are eager to provide a counterweight to United States power. On Thursday, Venezuela�s president, Hugo Ch�vez, arrived on his second visit here.

On Friday, Mr. Medvedev said the conflict also proved �the acuteness� of Russia�s need to modernize its military. Defense spending will increase by 26 percent next year, bringing it to 1.3 trillion rubles ($50 billion), its highest level since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

�Just recently we have had to rebuff an aggression by the Georgian regime and, as we found, a war can flare up suddenly and can be absolutely real,� he said. �Local, smoldering conflicts, which are sometimes even called �frozen conflicts,� will turn into a real military conflagration.�

The conflict in Georgia flared on the night of Aug. 7, when Georgia ordered an attack against Russian-backed separatists in South Ossetia. In response, Russia sent troops flooding over its border and deep into Georgia. Russia has recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a second separatist enclave, as sovereign states and plans to defend their borders.

The conflict revealed serious weaknesses in Russian military readiness. Georgian air defenses shot down at least six Russian jets, pointing to poor maintenance and inadequate training. Russians took losses because they lacked air cover as they entered South Ossetia, and a Russian general, apparently operating without sufficient intelligence, was wounded when he led a column into Georgian ambush.

By 2020, Mr. Medvedev said, Russia will shore up nuclear deterrents like nuclear submarines armed with cruise missiles and a combined air-space defense system.

In the same period, he said, the Russian armed forces will be upgraded to a state of �permanent combat readiness.� He said Russia would also improve military training and research.

�We should seek superiority in the air, in carrying out precision strikes against ground and sea targets, and in the prompt redeployment of forces,� he said, according to a statement on the Kremlin�s Web site.

Aleksandr Golts, an independent Russian military analyst, said the announcement conveyed a clear message, both to Russians and foreigners: that Russia �has risen from its knees.�

�Russia wants to behave as a great power,� he said.

�I have to agree with Mr. Gates, your defense secretary, who said that the existing Russian armed forces are only a shadow of the Soviet ones,� he said.

At a meeting with Mr. Ch�vez, Mr. Medvedev agreed to a form a Russian-Venezuelan energy consortium that would share resources to produce and sell oil and gas. Russian companies are already at work exploring oil fields in Venezuela, but the agreement will allow them to expand their reach into more areas, including fields in Ecuador and Bolivia.

Mr. Ch�vez described the agreement as �a colossus being born.�

More cooperative efforts are in the works: On Thursday, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin said Russia would consider working with Venezuela to build nuclear power facilities. Mr. Ch�vez said he would like to see the two countries join forces to create a Russian-Venezuelan bank, and the two countries are planning joint large-scale naval exercises in late November.

Mr. Ch�vez reaffirmed his support for Russia�s military campaign in South Ossetia, saying Venezuelans were �well aware of the reasons behind the conflict � who attacked the people of South Ossetia and how.� He also passed on greetings from President Ra�l Castro of Cuba, whom he recently met in Havana, and from the Chinese president, Hu Jintao.

Admiral Mullen, of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, played down the joint efforts. Russia and Venezuela, he said, have the right to work together �if they see fit.�

Some White House officials have privately urged a more punitive response to Russia�s invasion of Georgia, but Ms. Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates have urged a calm and deliberate response as being less likely to escalate tensions. That strategy has been adopted by the Bush administration.

In another assertion of its international role, Russia sent a warship, the Neustrashimy, from a port on the Baltic Sea to the coast of Somalia, in response to the capture by pirates of a Ukrainian vessel bound for Kenya on Thursday.

On board the vessel were 33 T-72 tanks, grenade launchers and ammunition, the Ukrainian defense minister, Yuriy Yekhanurov, said at a news briefing, according to Interfax. Mr. Yekhanurov said the arms were sold legally, and were headed for the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

Most likely the ship will not arrive in time to participate in any operation to retake the hijacked Ukrainian vessel. But a Russian Navy spokesman, Igor Dygalo, said Russia will occasionally patrol waters where piracy is a danger.

Iran Resolution Is Shaped

UNITED NATIONS � The foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the Security Council, plus that of Germany, agreed Friday on a draft resolution on Iran�s nuclear program.

The new resolution came after Russia earlier in the week rejected the need for a group meeting over Tehran�s program.

The sparse, two paragraph text called on Iran to comply with previous resolutions instructing it to suspend uranium enrichment, but it included no new sanctions.

The ministers said the measure signaled that they were united in pressing Iran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The foreign ministers did not meet officially, but a consensus emerged during sideline discussions that Iran should not be left with the impression that squabbling over Georgia meant the six were divided on the nuclear issue.

Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said he agreed to the new resolution because it reinforced the idea that despite their differences on the method to reach an agreement with Iran, �Nobody will have any doubt that the six are united in their goal.� Russia still opposed new sanctions, he said.

The five permanent members of the Council are the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that she still hoped that some officials in the Iranian government would prefer a negotiated settlement to further isolation for Iran.

Diplomats said the resolution could come to a vote in the Security Council as early as Saturday.

Thom Shanker contributed reporting from Washington, and Michael Schwirtz from Moscow.

synergy

Posted: Sep 28 2008, 09:07 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Ukraine far from ready to join NATO, despite U.S. support

QUOTE

By Tom Lasseter, McClatchy Newspapers
Thu Sep 25, 5:35 PM ET

KIEV, Ukraine � The Bush White House has been pressing its European allies to accept Ukraine into NATO � over Russia's bitter opposition � but the continuing political crisis in Kiev raises serious questions about whether this country is ready to join.

Viktor Yushchenko , the U.S.-backed president, was in New York this week, ringing the bell on the New York Stock Exchange and exhorting the U.N. General Assembly to contain Russia . Back home, his ruling coalition remains fractured, raising the prospect of a third parliamentary election in as many years.

Approval ratings for the one-time hero of the 2004 Orange Revolution are consistently below 10 percent. Despite Yushchenko's strong condemnation of Russia's invasion of Georgia last month and his enthusiastic support for NATO , polls show that only some 22 percent of Ukrainians favor joining the alliance.

In the parliament, opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions, considered by many to be close to Russia , has more than twice as many seats as Yushchenko's bloc, which is anchored by the Our Ukraine party.

The political bickering has significant implications for U.S. interests in the area, including the drive to admit Ukraine into NATO .

If Russia can capitalize on the instability and help shape Kiev's foreign policy, it could reassert some of the control it lost on Europe's edge after the collapse of the Soviet Union . That would be a major step forward for the Kremlin in what Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has referred to as "regions where ( Russia ) has privileged interests."

Yushchenko's supporters accuse Russia of engineering the political crisis by brokering a Faustian deal with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko , under which she split with the president and began cooperating with the opposition in return for backing in the 2010 presidential elections.

Earlier this month, Tymoshenko loyalists in parliament voted alongside Yanukovych's Party of Regions to limit the president's powers � a move Yushchenko said amounted to "a political and constitutional coup."

Officials from both Tymoshenko's and Yanukovych's parties say that the country can't afford to alienate Russia and aggressively pursue a divisive course toward NATO membership. They say Ukraine should focus instead on becoming part of the European Union and taking advantage of the country's location between Europe and Russia to raise its economic profile.

"The most positive answer for Ukraine is neutrality � neither joining NATO or any military union with Russia ," said Andriy Kozhemyakin, deputy head of the parliamentary contingent in Tymoshenko's eponymous political party. "Our political force is for Ukrainian integration into the EU as soon as possible."

Leonid Kozhara, deputy head of international relations for Yanukovych's party, said he also backs becoming a part of Europe and getting on more solid footing with Russia .

"It's not about Russian spheres or whatever; Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych understand that Ukraine cannot be a successful country without a relationship with Russia ," said Kozhara, a former Ukrainian ambassador to Sweden and congressional liaison in its Washington embassy.

Kozhara pointed out that for all of America's insistence about Ukraine's political future, it's a relatively unimportant trading partner.

Last year, the EU was the largest, at about 39 percent of the country's trade, and Russia was second at 24 percent. The U.S., on the other hand, was seventh at just 2.1 percent.

But many pro-western politicians and analysts say that drawing close to Russia risks a slow loss of Ukraine's independence until it became a de facto satellite state for the Kremlin.

" Russia is acting like an empire of gas and oil, it wants to harass Europe , to extend its territory to the post-Soviet region," said Taras Stetskiv, a parliament member from Yushchenko's political bloc, who has criticized the president's track record. "There's no need for war. Moscow has by its propaganda and its agents of influence made Ukrainian politicians fight each other � they are eating each other."

Olexiy Haran , an analyst in Kiev , said he worries that after Russia faced no real sanctions for its war with Georgia � in which it essentially annexed two large territories � the Kremlin is now more willing to deal aggressively with Ukraine . While he said he didn't think the Kremlin would try to take the peninsula of Crimea, where the Russian Black Sea fleet is docked � a frequently discussed scenario � Haran said that it's hard to predict what might happen.

"From the west, we heard a lot of nice words, strong words, brave rhetoric, but in reality nothing was done" following the Georgia war, said Haran, founding director of a school for policy analysis at a leading Kiev university. "The Russians now feel that OK, now we can do what we want."

For all the rancor about Russia , many analysts say the political turmoil in Ukraine mostly is due not to foreign meddling but squabbling politicians.

Both Yushchenko, with his face scarred by a 2004 poisoning that many blame on the Russians, and Tymoshenko, a nail-tough political fighter who wears her blonde hair in a wrap-around braid, have been darlings of the West since they led the ouster of the pro-Communist government during the Orange Revolution.

But after the thrill of that movement faded, Yushchenko and Tymoshenko quarreled often as they vied for support from Ukrainians in the west and center of the country who tend to be more western-leaning.

After Russian invaded Georgia last month, the pair appeared to take different paths to shore up political support, said Oleksandr Sushko , research director at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation , a NATO advocacy think tank.

Yushchenko unleashed harsh criticism of Russia both in Kiev and on a trip to Tbilisi , and singled out Tymoshenko for not speaking up more.

Tymoshenko was more pragmatic and argued for dealing with Russia calmly and as a partner, an apparent effort to pick up votes in the eastern and southern reaches of Ukraine where support for Russia is widespread, Sushko said.

"Playing the Russia card is part of the domestic political process," Sushko said. "The president uses the Russia card to accuse Tymoshenko of being a Russian puppet, and Tymoshenko accuses Yushchenko of destroying Ukraine's relationship with Russia ."

The question, say many in Kiev , is whether Russia will win at the end of the game.

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY

In Black Sea port, Ukraine is sovereign, but Russia rules

Russian leaders talk big, but army and economy are weak

Kremlin-watchers warn of direct U.S.- Russia clash

Russian parliament recognizes breakaway Georgian provinces

synergy

Posted: Oct 2 2008, 12:42 PM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Russia to deploy new nuclear missile

QUOTE

By Michael Stott
Reuters Thu Oct 2, 10:37 AM ET

Russia hopes to deploy a new nuclear missile next year designed to penetrate anti-missile defenses and will build eight submarines to carry it, defense officials said on Thursday.

The latest statements underline Moscow's determination to upgrade its nuclear strike forces on land, sea and air. They are regarded by Russian commanders as the cornerstone of the country's defenses.

Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin, head of armaments for the Russian armed forces, told the Defense Ministry newspaper "Red Star" that Russia's recent war with Georgia "compels us to rethink the current state of the armed forces and how they should develop further."

President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have both pledged to extend Russia's recent military build-up with extra funds to buy new, high-tech arms. On Wednesday, Putin announced an extra $3.1 billion of spending next year, partly to replace equipment lost in the Georgia war.

Despite the billions of dollars spent on them since Putin came to power as president in 2000, Russia's 1 million-strong armed forces remain poorly equipped, badly paid and reliant on a large proportion of unwilling conscripts.

The deputy commander in chief of the Russian navy, Admiral Alexander Tatarinov, said on Thursday that by 2015 Moscow would build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines to carry a new, nuclear-capable strategic missile.

"The navy has gone over to building ships and nuclear submarines by the batch," Tatarinov told Interfax news agency.

"A new state armaments program includes a plan to build a batch of eight nuclear submarines that would be armed with new Bulava strategic missiles."

SPENDING

Defense analysts based in Moscow say much of the extra spending has not reached the front line because of corruption or mismanagement and many weapons programs are running late.

One of these is the Bulava, a submarine-launched long-range nuclear missile which Putin says will be capable of penetrating any missile defenses -- a reference to Washington's plans for a new global system to shoot down hostile rockets.

The Bulava, a modified version of the land-based Topol-M, has had a checkered history with several test launch failures and is running at least two years late.

The navy pronounced the latest Bulava exercise on September 18 a success, saying the missile flew from the White Sea across Russia to the Far East.

Popovkin, who is also deputy defense minister, said he hoped the armed forces would accept the Bulava for service next year. Upgrading Russia's strategic nuclear forces remained a priority because they were the cornerstone of its defenses, he said.

"As long as we are a nuclear power, no hotheads will venture to attack our country," Popovkin said in the interview.

" ... We have already this year started fitting out strategic nuclear forces with the Topol-M missile," he added.

Russia also plans to modernize its nuclear-capable Tupolev TU-160 supersonic strategic bombers and to fully commission the first nuclear-powered submarine to carry the Bulava missile, he added.

The submarine, the Yuri Dolgoruky, was launched in February, six years after its original scheduled date, though it still lacks the missiles it was designed to carry.

synergy

Posted: Oct 5 2008, 08:07 AM

Advanced Member

Group: Admin
Posts: 96,688
Member No.: 3
Joined: 20-November 07

Senior Russia peacekeeper died in S.Ossetia blast

QUOTE

REUTERS
Reuters North American News Service

Oct 04, 2008 05:51 EST

MOSCOW, Oct 4 (Reuters) - A senior Russian peacekeeping officer was among seven soldiers killed on Friday in an explosion in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, Russian media reported on Saturday.

On Friday, seven Russian peacekeepers died and another seven were wounded when a car filled with explosives blew up near their base in Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, news agencies reported.

RIA Novosti on Saturday quoted a representative of Russia's Ground Force as saying Colonel Ivan Petrik, the Russian peacekeepers' chief of staff, was killed in that blast. He was in his office when the explosion went off near the building.

"Petrik was severely wounded by the blast wave and died at the explosion site," RIA quoted the official as saying.

South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity on Friday blamed Georgian security services for the blast. The Georgian Interior Ministry denied the charges.

Months of skirmishes between separatists and Georgian troops erupted into war in August when Georgia sent troops and tanks to retake the pro-Russian region of South Ossetia, which threw off Georgian rule in the early 1990s.

Russian forces subsequently drove Georgian government troops out of South Ossetia. Moscow's troops then pushed further into Georgia, saying they needed to prevent further Georgian attacks.

The West has condemned Russia for a "disproportionate response" to Georgia's actions and demanded that Moscow pull back its troops from Georgian territory outside the conflict zones.

Under a plan mediated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, EU monitors have now entered a Russian-controlled buffer zone around South Ossetia to begin a peacekeeping operation.

On Friday, Russia's Defence Ministry said it viewed the explosion as "a deliberately planned terrorist act aimed at preventing the sides from carrying out the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan," but did not specify who exactly was behind the blast.

EU ceasefire monitors were continuing operations despite security concerns after the blast.

A spokesman for the mission said unarmed monitors had been patrolling as normal on Saturday, including within the Russian-controlled buffer zone adjacent to South Ossetia. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Additional reporting by Matt Robinson; Editing by Giles Elgood)

1 User(s) are reading this topic (1 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users)

0 Members:

« Next Oldest | From Today's Headlines | Next Newest »

DealsFor.me - The best sales, coupons, and discounts for you