Putin issues sharp warning to US, vows to counter 'imperialism'

AFP on Yahoo ^ | 5/31/07 | AFP

[NormsRevenge]

MOSCOW (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin issued an acerbic warning Thursday to the United States, saying the recent test of a new Russian missile was a direct response to US actions and condemning "imperialism" in world affairs.

"Our American partners have quit the ABM Treaty," Putin told reporters after meeting his Greek counterpart, referring to the landmark 1972 US-Soviet treaty limiting the missile defenses of the Cold War superpower foes.

"We warned them then that we would come out with a response to maintain the strategic balance in the world. Yesterday 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."

The United States informed Russia in 2001 that it was exercising its option to withdraw unilaterally from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) pact. It has since stepped up controversial plans, fiercely opposed by Russia, to deploy a missile defence shield in eastern Europe.

Putin warned Wednesday that the US missile defense plan would turn Europe into a "powder keg" and he repeated on Thursday previous assertions that the planned deployments would ignite a new Cold War-style arms buildup.

"We are not the initiators of this new round of the arms race," Putin said.

The Russian president's comments came a week before he meets US President George W. Bush and other leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations at a summit in Germany.

He is also scheduled to hold one-on-one talks with Bush in the United States at the beginning of July.

In a thinly disguised attack on US foreign policy in recent years, Putin warned there had been attempts by actors -- he did not name any country or bloc explicitly -- in international affairs to impose their will on others.

"In our view, it is nothing other than diktat, than imperialism," the Russian leader stated.

"Problems have arisen because the world changed and there was an attempt to make it unipolar. There was a desire among several international actors to dictate their will to each and everyone and to act not in accordance with the norms of international life and law," Putin said.

He added: "This is very dangerous and unhealthy. The norms of international law have been altered for political expediency. What is this political expediency and who defines it?"

Tensions between Russia and the United States have risen dramatically in the past year amid sharpening differences over the US missile plans, the state of democracy in Russia and concerns over energy supplies.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repeated on Wednesday the US assertion that the planned missile defense system in eastern Europe poses no threat to Russia and that Moscow's concern over it is "ludicrous."

Her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, countered at a meeting of G8 foreign ministers outside Berlin that "there is nothing ludicrous about this issue because the arms race is starting again."

[RusIvan]

Vlad Putin is just another Russian commie trying to look like a hero to the other commies.==

Heh heh:) If he is a commie then he is commie billioneer first ever. Putin is busy to get rich not to proclaim a revolution.

[Rembrandt_fan]

You wrote, “Without our intervention and support in the European theater, are you both of the belief that an unfettered Germany would have eventually been defeated by the Soviet regime and European forces?”

You’re talking alternate universe stuff here. I’m simply saying we didn’t ‘save the bacon’ of the Russians during WWII. The expression you employed doesn’t sum up the reality of the situation very well. It isn’t that cut-and-dried—unlike, say, the case of the French or the Belgians or the Dutch—whose bacon, brisket, ribs and hocks we did save, outright, directly, without dispute.

The US and the USSR were allies during WWII. The entire premise of a wartime alliance is to hang together rather than hang separately. So again, no, we didn’t save the Russians. We saved each other, quid pro quo.

[NormsRevenge]

It isn’t that cut-and-dried—unlike, say, the case of the French or the Belgians or the Dutch—whose bacon, brisket, ribs and hocks we did save, outright, directly, without dispute.

The US and the USSR were allies during WWII. The entire premise of a wartime alliance is to hang together rather than hang separately. So again, no, we didn’t save the Russians. We saved each other, quid pro quo.

—

Cut and dried, No, perhaps not. Sadly, it appears we may have only saved each other from each other, for now, it seems.

If we had just done our thing and fought the war in the Pacific and then stayed out of the European affair ( I am not an isolationist, btw), the Soviets might still have won, albeit over a longer time period and with likely significant more losses.

Thanks for the reply.

[nativeRussian]

Paul Ross; Alberta’s Child;

Or why many of these same folks were among the few so-called Republicans who openly supported Bill Clinton’s military campaign in the Balkans in 1999 — ostensibly to help what has turned out to be a radical Islamic element in Kosovo?

May I give you my 2 cents, guys?
Thanks for your replies I’ve laughed until one cries
Perhaps American media forgot to inform nation about main drug-truffic (from Afghanistan to Europe) pass through Kosovo… also Albanians (living in Kosovo) have main incom from drug-activity in Europe.
Many Russians know that Bill Clinton gave support to Albanian drug-dealers from Kosovo…. do you think is was free of charge? - of course, sure!!!!!!

[M. Espinola]

"Heh heh:) If he is a commie then he is commie billioneer first ever. Putin is busy to get rich not to proclaim a revolution."

Was Putin a commie all the years he was in the KGB? Was KGB Col Putin a commie when he requested to be stationed in the communist hell hole of East Germany?

Commies require millions& billions to finance subversion in the West & build new Russian ICBM systems pointing at Western nations. Putin's terrorist allies are doing the Kremlin's dirty work.

Putin's dictatorship has already launched various forms of attacks against Estonia & Georgia, free nations who refuse bow down to Vlad's Neo-Soviet energy dictatorship.

Russia: racing down a destructive dead end