Posted on 05/31/2007 2:04:25 PM PDT by lizol
U.S. "imperialism" means new arms race - Putin
By Oleg Shchedrov
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Thursday of imperialism and starting a new arms race, but Washington said its ex-Cold War foe's foreign policy showed it was behind the times.
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 two new missiles were a direct response to U.S. moves to create a missile defence system in Europe.
"We are not the initiators of this new round of the arms race," Putin told a joint Kremlin news conference.
"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.
On Tuesday, Russia test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile with multiple warheads and a new cruise missile, 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 parts of its global missile defence 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 "International law has been replaced by political reasons."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.
But on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described the difficult relationship as a "mix of cooperation and competition, friendship and friction".
"But at times, Russia seems to think and act in the zero-sum terms of another era," she said in remarks prepared for a speech.
She said Russia's opposition to the missile shield was hard to understand. But Putin said Russia had to design new missiles after Washington quit the Cold War-era Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty in order to pursue the 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.
Wanna go 0 for 2 eh Vlad?
LOL! Last I heard Bush hasn’t exactly been actively plotting to assassinate Noam Chomsky or Howard Dean, and the US hasn’t exectly been openly threatening Chavez of step down or else nuking Venezuela.
Umm, what has Putin done lately? Testing cruise missile. Threatening European neighbours with real missiles. Killing off political opponents and oppositional pundits.
Don’t sing it, bring it - Pootie
They just tested a new series of cruse missiles a few days ago.
Besides Guam, who exactly has the USA “imperialized?”
Real nice of ‘em to whine about this the week after they tested a new cruise missile.
STFU, Pooty-poot.
Don’t sing it or bring it, Vlad. Why don’t you spend your time getting your basket case of a country sorted out, instead of rattling your sabre at the USA for no good reason?
Russia should have learned a long time ago that we have no desire to take over their frozen drunken country.
As I said earlier, in December 2007 Russia will have elections and they have a parliamentary system.
Man, are they irrelevant..Hey Putin! How about getting Russian male life expectancy to be over 60 years old? Now that would be a challenge!!
Good, Putin, lets go ahead and have another arms race. We all know what happened to your courtry after the last one !
The missile shield isn't about you. You aren't a superpower anymore. Get over yourself.
This is just an attempt by Putin to threaten and bluster because the Iranians and China are upstaging Russia in the who can play the bad guy the best category.
Russia tried to act like a responsible member of society for a short while, but they weren't able to keep internal corruption from undermining their economic vitality, and their heavy handed tactics drove off their former allies.
So now they are back to their old tricks of threatening everyone to try and gain respect that way.
The most proper response would be to just ignore them, but the European appeasement movement won't have anything to do with that. They need to show their leadership by being the first to pander to the Russian threats.
what are we waiting for? let’s outspend those closet-commies once again.
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