Thread: U.S. "imperialism" means new arms race: Putin

U.S. "imperialism" means new arms race: Putin

By Oleg Shchedrov Thu May 31, 11:01 AM ET



MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a scathing attack on the West on Thursday, accusing Washington of imperialism and of starting a new arms race.

Speaking a week before he meets leaders of the Group of Eight (G-8) industrial nations in Germany, Putin said Russia's tests on Tuesday of a two new missiles were a direct response to U.S. moves to create a missile defense system.

"We are not the initiators of this new round of the arms race," Putin told a joint Kremlin news conference with visiting Greek President Karolos Papoulias.
"There is no need to fear Russia's actions: they are not aggressive," he said. "They are a mere response to harsh and groundless unilateral actions by our partners and are aimed at maintaining the balance of forces in the world."
Putin's comments, which will be popular among ordinary Russians in a year when there is a parliamentary election, are the latest in a line of harsh outbursts against the West.

Russia on Tuesday test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile with multiple warheads and a new cruise missiles, which Russian generals say are sufficient to ensure the country's security for the next 40 years.
"Our partners are stuffing eastern Europe with new weapons," Putin said. "What are we supposed to do? We cannot just observe all this."

Moscow has been alarmed by U.S. plans to deploy elements of its global missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Washington says it wants to avert attacks from "rogue states" such as Iran but Russia sees a threat to its own security.

"There is a clear desire by some international players to dictate their will to everyone without adhering to international law," Putin said. "International law has been replaced by political reasons."

"In our opinion it is nothing different from diktat, nothing different from imperialism," he added.

RUSSIA FORCED TO DESIGN NEW MISSILES
Relations between Russia and the United States are strained by issues that also include U.S. concerns that human rights and democracy are backsliding in Russia.

Putin and Bush have a chance to discuss their countries' differences at talks in the United States on July 1-2.

Putin said Russia had to design new missiles after Washington quit the Cold War-era Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty in order to pursue its missile shield project.

"We have warned them then that we will come out with a response to maintain the strategic balance in the world," he said.

"We conducted a test of a new strategic ballistic missile with multiple warheads, and of a new cruise missile, and will continue to improve our resources."

In another move putting Russia at odds with the West, Putin has frozen Russia's commitments under the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) pact, which limits heavy weapons deployed between the Atlantic and the Urals mountains.


Russia blames NATO countries for failing to ratify the 1999 version of the treaty which took into account the collapse of the Soviet Union and the departure of its Warsaw Pact allies.

NATO believes Russia should first meets its commitment to withdraw military bases from ex-Soviet Georgia and Moldova.
"We say: ratify the treaty and start carrying it out or we will quit it for good," Putin said.

U.S. "imperialism" means new arms race: Putin - Yahoo! News

Putin is using this as an excuse for something he planed to do in the first place. A missile defence system is not a weapon, just as kevlar is not a weapon.

Right, we're evil for building defense systems (that, according to the left, are useless).

Originally Posted by Sparta

Putin is using this as an excuse for something he planed to do in the first place. A missile defence system is not a weapon, just as kevlar is not a weapon.

Missile defense is recognized by the the world's intelligence agencies as a first strike weapon, so of course rival powers would react in this fashion. Its a sword, not a shield. It expands the domains for aggression. As expected, Russia is building up its nuclear weapons capacity in an effort to overwhelm it. China will react to Russia, India will react to China, then Pakistan, and then you get a ripple effect increasing the threats to us all. And at this level were talking about survival of the species. This isnt just thousands of people being killed.

Originally Posted by Sparta

Putin is using this as an excuse for something he planed to do in the first place. A missile defence system is not a weapon, just as kevlar is not a weapon.

It would have taken a moron not to have seen this fall-out. Oh yeah... I keep forgetting...

Published on Thursday, September 26, 2002 in the lndependent/UK
Russia Fears US Oil Companies Will Take Over World's Second-Biggest Reserves
Russia Fears US Oil Companies Will Take Over World's Second-Biggest Reserves

Russia says new ICBM can beat any system

Russia tested new missiles Tuesday that a Kremlin official boasted could penetrate any defense system, and President Vladimir Putin warned that U.S. plans for an anti-missile shield in Europe would turn the region into a "powder keg."

The Buffalo News: 24 Hour Breaking News

Russian diplomat: New arms race starting
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer

POTSDAM, Germany - Russia's top diplomat accused the United States of launching a new arms race as the two nations traded barbs Wednesday over U.S. plans to erect a missile defense system in countries formerly under Moscow's influence.

Russian diplomat: New arms race starting - Yahoo! News

heh.....from February

Czech, Polish Premiers Would Support
Hosting Proposed U.S. Missile Shield

Associated Press
February 19, 2007 8:15 a.m.

WARSAW, Poland -- Poland and Czech Republic are in favor of hosting a proposed U.S. missile-defense system, the Czech premier said Monday after meeting with his Polish counterpart.

"We agreed that both countries will probably give a positive response to the U.S. letter, and only then will we open negotiations," Mirek Topolanek said after talks with Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. "I think it is in our joint interest to negotiate this initiative and to build ... the missile defense," he said.

The U.S. said last month that it wanted to install a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe, to guard the eastern U.S. and Europe from missiles launched from "rogue nations" in the Middle East.
It would be the first such site in Europe.

Two other bases -- at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California -- would confront possible threats from rogue nations elsewhere.

Mr. Kaczynski said last week he supported the U.S. proposal to build missile interceptors in Poland and an accompanying radar site in the Czech Republic.

The U.S. plans have drawn the ire of Russia, which says such a missile defense could disturb the balance of power in the region and fuel a new arms race.

On Monday, Mr. Kaczynski brushed aside the Kremlin's fears, saying "the missile defense is not directed against any normal state." "Any statement suggesting that the missile defense would change the alignment of forces in Europe is a misunderstanding," he said.

Russia says new ICBM can beat any system

Then why are they complaining?

Originally Posted by Horhey

Missile defense is recognized by the the world's intelligence agencies as a first strike weapon, so of course rival powers would react in this fashion. Its a sword, not a shield. It expands the domains for aggression. As expected, Russia is building up its nuclear weapons capacity in an effort to overwhelm it. China will react to Russia, India will react to China, then Pakistan, and then you get a ripple effect increasing the threats to us all. And at this level were talking about survival of the species. This isnt just thousands of people being killed.

Yeah. It's a first strike weapon. We'll point our Patriot missiles into Russia and blow up some farmland.

ABM systems are viewed as "first strike" weapons by people that had there international hegemony ruined because they couldn't afford to keep up with the building of them. Say, a nation like Russia once used to be, before it went bankrupt.

A#1 Reason for ending US dependency on foreign oil: Price of petroleum would drop to a fraction of what it is today, and Russia would go back to being even more of a basket case than it is.

Russia Tests New Intercontinental RS-24 Ballistic Missile

(RTTNews) - Russia has test-launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia at 1420 hours on Tuesday. The RS-24 missile, capable of carrying up to 10 warheads, is designed to evade missile defense systems, the Russian defense ministry said on Tuesday.

Russia has complained that US plans to deploy interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic to counter what it perceives as a potential threat from "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea, threatens Russia's security.

However, the Americans maintain that their anti-missile system is not directed at the Russians.

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