The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Candid talk by Gorbachev

Gorbachev criticises US 'empire'



The former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, has blamed the US for the current state of relations between Russia and the West. In a BBC interview, Mr Gorbachev said that the Russians were ready to be constructive, but America was trying to squeeze them out of global diplomacy. He added that the Iraq War had undermined Tony Blair's credibility. Mr Gorbachev accused America of "empire-building", which he said the UK should have warned it away from.

'New empire'

Moscow and the West have been in dispute over Iraq, America's plans for a missile defence system and civil rights within Russia itself. Britain's extradition request for a Russian man in connection with the murder of ex-agent Alexander Litvinenko has also caused tension. In an interview with Radio Four's The World This Weekend, Mr Gorbachev said relations between Russia and the West were in a bad state.

"Well, it's worse than I expected," he said through a translator.

"We lost 15 years after the end of the Cold War, but the West I think and particularly the United States, our American friends, were dizzy with their success, with the success of their game that they were playing, a new empire.

"I don't understand why you, the British, did not tell them, 'Don't think about empire, we know about empires, we know that all empires break up in the end, so why start again to create a new mess.'"

He added that the war with Iraq had damaged Britain's relationship with Russia after a promising start.

"Tony Blair and Putin established a very good relationship and that made it possible to advance our relationship," he said.

"But then Iraq happened and Tony found himself in the embrace of that military monster, of that war situation, and he lost a lot of his credibility in the world and in Europe."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...pe/6717037.stm

Gorbachev to U.S.: Let's not repeat the Cold War

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Wednesday that U.S. plans to build a missile defense shield in Europe are arrogant and threaten to usher in a new Cold War. Speaking to CNN from Moscow as the Group of Eight Summit got under way in Germany, Gorbachev said the U.S. proposal -- which includes installations in Poland and the Czech Republic -- means that Europe is becoming a target again.

"I do hope the Cold War is not going to be repeated," he said. "We must take advantage of opportunities to avoid that."

He said polls in the Czech Republic suggested that more than 70 percent of people opposed the missile defense program.

"There is the possibility that self-confidence, arrogance, will lead to a situation similar to that with the war in Iraq," Gorbachev warned in a wide-ranging discussion of American policy. "The U.S. is driving itself into a corner -- they've lost credibility in the world."

He said Washington's "intimidating" behavior is different from the spirit that existed after the end of the Cold War. "Europe is not a guinea pig," he said. Gorbachev added that Russian President Vladimir Putin was right to say the anti-missile project is an attempt to set Europe against Russia. "We are being drawn into another arms race," he said. Gorbachev was the leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until its dissolution in 1991. He presided over a thaw in his country's icy relations with the United States and its move toward glasnost, or openness, in the 1980s. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. On Iran, Gorbachev agreed that a nuclear-armed Tehran must be opposed. But he said that starting a war would be a "catastrophic mistake."

"Some people think that missiles can solve everything," he said, without specifying. "We were told in this way the problem of Iraq would be resolved."

Gorbachev said the international community had not yet exhausted political and diplomatic options and added that he sees no value to introducing sanctions against Iran. Gorbachev said that Russian democracy is growing despite its problems. He noted that the courts don't work and some media outlets have made deals with the authorities. But there is now, he said, a relatively free press. Russia is moving from a totalitarian regime to democracy, he said, but it is only halfway there. Meanwhile, President Bush on Wednesday promised to work toward resolving the political tensions between the U.S. and Russia that threaten to overshadow this week's G8 gathering in Heiligendamm, Germany, near Rostock.

"Russia is not an enemy," Bush said when asked about Putin's threat to point missiles at European targets in protest of American plans for a Europe-based missile defense system.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/eu...les/index.html

[karoaper]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Live Actives????

Նույն հարցումը ես էլ ունիմ: Հայերեն թարգմանությունը նույնիսք չհասկացա:



I can only surmise that it must have been taken literally from Russian, as a result it may have lost its effect in the translation. But it must refer to taking control of the state-owned industries and companies as you stated.

maybe live actives = active assets?
it doesn't have to be giving control away, but maybe paying dividends, shares, things that are not cash but as good as cash, assuming they're tied to active assets.
Giving control away would be a very unusual way to "pay" someone.

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

An absolutely brilliant move by Moscow. They have more-or-less stated:

If you are serious about protecting yourself from Iranian missiles, then move your proposed anti-missile installations to the Russian radar base in Azerbaijan.

In a move quite appropriate of a chess grandmaster, Putin has managed to call Washington DC's bluff. Subsequent reactions from Washington DC will reveal just how 'sincere' it has been regarding the reasons why it has been promoting an anti-missile installation in eastern Europe.

Will America agree to swap ABM systems?



(Military commentator Viktor Safonov for RIA Novosti) - At this year's G8 summit in Heiligendamm, President Vladimir Putin made George W. Bush an offer he will have difficulty refusing. Why deploy missile interceptors and a radar in the Czech Republic and Poland to protect Europe against "rogue countries" when there is a much simpler, cheaper and more effective solution? The Daryal early-warning missile radar is located in Gabala, Azerbaijan, just 180 km to the north of Baku - that is, close to the Iranian border. Using it instead of placing new ABM elements in Europe would benefit everyone.

Washington would remove Moscow's natural concern that the American ground-based interceptors on the Baltic Sea coast are meant for Russian strategic missiles in the Tver, Kaluga, Ivanovo and Vladimir regions. Warsaw, Prague and their European neighbors would no longer be afraid of the Russian Topol-M and Iskander-M missiles that, as Putin has warned, will be targeted at them. The United States would have the opportunity to observe Iranian airspace. The Gabala radar monitors land, water, air and space up to 6,000 kilometers away, the same as the distance from Turkey to Singapore. Azerbaijan also stands to gain from this proposal. By different estimates, Russia pays it $7-$10 million to lease the Gabala radar. The 900 Russian officers at the station create jobs for the local population. If they are joined by American officers, Azerbaijan will get even more money.

But the main point is that the Pentagon would gain an official foothold in the South Caucasian Republic without embarrassing Baku in front of its strategic partner, Moscow. Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov told the Novosti-Azerbaijan news agency that bilateral talks on this radar had been held with both Russia and the United States. He said that Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov had discussed this issue with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, during the latter's recent trip to Baku. Later on, Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Vasily Istratov spoke about the possibility of using the Gabala radar as an element of an American ABM system. But his suggestion did not create much of a stir in the international media.

The question of whether the United States will agree to this tempting proposal remains open. Many military analysts believe that Washington is likely to reject Moscow's proposal using some plausible-sounding excuse because it needs strategic ABM system in Europe in order to be able to target Topol-M, Stilet and Satan missiles in European Russia and the southern Urals. This problem has another aspect. It doesn't even matter whether Russian strategic missiles are a threat to the United States. What matters is the huge amount of money that the American taxpayer, scared by years of propaganda, is ready to spend on national security. The military-industrial complex's lobbyists in Congress and the White House will not allow this money to be used for any other purpose.

Russia and the United States are not likely to cooperate in the ABM sphere. Since 1998, Moscow and Washington have been unsuccessfully trying to reach an agreement on establishing centers for the exchange of information on strategic missile launches on a reciprocal basis. The Russia-NATO Council has set up a joint group to establish a theater ABM system in Europe. It has conducted a dozen consultations and several staff exercises, practiced joint action, reconnaissance and warning. The sides have agreed on what hardware should be used to repel a tactical missile attack - NATO is going to buy the American PAC-3 Patriot. Brussels says that the Russian systems cannot be used for reasons of "operational incompatibility."

Meanwhile, Greece, a NATO member, has built its entire anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense using the Russian Top-M1 and S-300PMU1 systems. It is clear that Europe favors American defense companies over their Russian counterparts. Putin's latest proposal is likely to meet with the same response. After high-level discussions on using the Gabala radar for protection against Iranian missiles, experts will conclude that it is "incompatible" with the American ABM system. The ABM swap, therefore, is unlikely. Analysts expect Washington to deploy its elements as planned - near Prague and near Warsaw.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070608/66928453.html

NATO cautious on Russia shield offer

NATO reacted cautiously on Friday to a Russian offer for the United States to use a Russian-controlled radar in Azerbaijan for a missile defense shield, questioning whether its location was ideal. Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to President George W. Bush at a Group of Eight summit on Thursday that Washington use the Azeri radar instead of planned missile interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic. Moscow suspects the shield is aimed at Russia. Washington says it is to stop missiles from "rogue" states.

"I think it is a bit close to the rogue states we are discussing," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a conference about the proposed Russian alternative.

"But it's a bit too early in the day for my final judgment. It is always useful when two presidents are constructively talking to each other on this," said de Hoop Scheffer, who has promoted NATO as a forum for talks over the shield plan.

In Baku, Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov told reporters Russia had approached his government with a proposal to use the Qabala radar jointly with the United States, for example in sharing information obtained by it.

"Azerbaijan is ready for such consultations," he said. Azerbaijan had held what he called "rudimentary consultations" with the United States about the radar. The Qabala radar has operated in the north of Azerbaijan since 1985 and is manned by Russian military who lease it from the Azeris. One of the biggest radars in the world, it scans the Indian Ocean, the Middle East and most of North Africa -- and can detect missiles launched in those areas.
Bold proposal

Bush did not directly mention Putin's offer in comments to reporters on Thursday. U.S. officials have in the past stressed they regarded the proposed central European sites as ideally placed to intercept missiles coming from the Middle East. White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley said Putin's idea was "a bold proposal." U.S. officials would study the offer and discuss it with the Russians. Putin said that if Washington took up the offer he would not follow through with a threat to re-direct Russian missiles to targets in Europe. The Kremlin said Putin's idea would remove any need for a U.S. radar anywhere in eastern Europe. Poland said it had received no signals from the United States of any change of policy on the shield.

"From the Polish point of view, the negotiations are ongoing," Foreign Ministry spokesman Robert Szaniawski said. "We have not received any signals from the U.S. side that they were planning to abandon plans of cooperation (on the shield)."

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/eu...eut/index.html

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

And now the following comment from RadioCIAeurope.

All of a sudden they are concerned about Armenia and the "balance" of power in the region. Were they not trying to set up American/NATO bases in Azerbaijan just recently? Why the hesitation all of a sudden? Were they not doing everything in their power to upset the balance of power in the region? Moreover, if they are truly concerned about Iranian missiles targeting Europe or America (itself an absurd concept) why don't they set up their anti-missile bases in Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar or Afghanistan, where they already have a massive military presence?

As I said, this is a brilliant move by Moscow. They are forcing Washington's hand. If Washington agrees to the proposal, Moscow will have the added advantage of keeping a very close eye on US military activity within the region. If Washington refuses the proposal, it will be obvious that the anti-missile base was intended to be primarily against Russia and, as a result, Moscow will take appropriate countermeasures.

Note: This Russian proposal has no impact on Armenian-Russian relations whatsoever. Russians already have a major radar station in Azerbaijan, they already have a high volume of economic trade. The reason why US State Department is brining up the Armenian factor here in this article is quite obvious.

Caucasus: Russian Radar Proposal Could Upset Region




In geopolitics, particularly in a place as strategically important as the South Caucasus, even the smallest shift can unleash major consequences. What would the impact be on that volatile region -- a crossroads for the competing interests of Russia, the United States, and Iran -- if Washington accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin's offer to jointly use a Russian-leased radar base in Azerbaijan as part of an antimissile shield?

In a word: profound.

After all, Azerbaijan and Armenia, which fought a war in the early 1990s, are still locked in a bitter dispute. And Iran, meanwhile, is unlikely to view favorably more U.S. military moves on its border. Iranian state radio said today that Putin's proposal could have "serious regional implications in the domain of security."

Radio Farda acting Director Mosaddegh Katouzian notes that Tehran and Baku's good relations could be affected, and that the issue is likely to be discussed in two weeks during Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's scheduled visit to Baku

"Definitely Iran would be concerned about having those types of bases in Azerbaijan because of its own security," Katouzian says. "So probably in the next talks between President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Baku officials, this is going to come up as a big concern."

Frozen Conflict

Then there's Armenia and Azerbaijan, who fought a war in 1991-94 in which 25,000 died. They have since been locked in a bitter dispute over the object of that conflict: Azerbaijan's predominantly ethnic-Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ironically, Putin's offer comes as Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Robert Kocharian, himself a former Karabakh leader, are to meet in St. Petersburg on June 9 to discuss the standoff over the enclave. International mediators have hoped that the two presidents can agree on small steps to improve life for people in Nagorno-Karabakh. But they also fear if dialogue fails, violence could resume, destabilizing an area that is emerging as a key energy producer and transport route between the Caspian Sea region and Europe.

Putin's missile-defense proposal, however, appears to risk tipping the balancing act on Nagorno-Karabakh toward Azerbaijan.

Upsetting Regional Balance

Rasim Musabekov, a political analyst based in Baku, suggests Azerbaijan could parlay any pivotal role in Washington's missile-defense shield into obtaining concessions from Armenian in the standoff over Nagorno-Karabakh.

"The discussion of this issue alone is raising Azerbaijan's strategic importance. This is a win for Azerbaijan. If we are taken as partners of the United States of America and Russia, this would give us certain security guarantees and would lead to obligations [on the part of Russia and the United States] to settle problems that Azerbaijan is concerned about," Musabekov says. Click image to enlarge"In the first place, this means restoring Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, which was violated by Armenian aggression against 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory," he adds. So far, Azerbaijani authorities have refrained from offering a full reaction to Russia's proposal.

However, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has told RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service that Baku is ready to negotiate "bilaterally, or we can do it in the trilateral format" with the United States and Russia, which currently leases the radar base from Azerbaijan. Armenia, meanwhile, would appear to be concerned about that prospect. Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Karapetian tells RFE/RL that both Russia and the United States should "take into account the balance of the power in the region before making such a decision."

Armenia Nervous

But for weeks now, even before Putin made his surprise proposal at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Germany, that balance has already appeared to be tilting away from Armenia. Yerevan is traditionally a close ally of Russia. But Harry Tamrazian, head of RFE/RL's Armenian Service, says that in recent weeks there's been a flood of Russian officials visiting Baku, including a visit by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"Now, it appears that [the] Russians are talking to [the] Azeris. Russian high-level officials are frequently in Baku. You can see them almost every week in Baku, talking to Azeri leaders," he says. "And this makes Armenian leaders nervous. Obviously, there is a clear rapprochement between Moscow and Baku."

Together with France, the United States and Russia are co-chairs of the Minsk Group, the body set up by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to seek solutions to the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis. Yerevan's chief concern now, says Tamrazian, is that if Russia and U.S. interests converge in Baku, Armenia could pay the price.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle...CEA435F04.html

In related news:

Gabala radar can detect cruise missiles, ICBMs - Ivanov



UST-LUGA (Leningrad Region), June 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's first deputy prime minister said the Gabala radar, leased by Russia in Azerbaijan, is capable of detecting both cruise and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Russia has offered the United States joint use of the radar in an attempt to ease tensions sparked by Washington's missile defense plans in Central Europe.

"It technologically makes it possible to monitor launches of both ICBMs and cruise missiles with a wide field of view to the south of our borders," Sergei Ivanov, a former defense minister, said, adding that he had visited the radar on more than one occasion. Ivanov said the Russian proposal testifies to Russia's readiness to resolve security issues with Washington and Europe constructively. "The proposal is a good basis on which to fight modern challenges and threats," he said. The first deputy premier said "apocalyptical and alarmist" forecasts had been made in the press about Russian-U.S. security cooperation before the Group of Eight summit currently taking place in Heiligendamm, Germany. But he said Russia's proposal refutes these suggestions.

"We are ready for constructive cooperation, taking into account the security interests of our partners, our interests, and everybody else's interests," he said. A NATO source said earlier in the day that President Vladimir Putin's proposal on the joint use of the radar, made at bilateral talks Thursday with U.S. President George W. Bush, will be discussed by the Russia-NATO Council on June 14. At a news conference after the leaders' talks on Germany's Baltic coast, Bush gave no specific response to the proposals, but White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley who was also present at the meeting called the offer "interesting", and said: "let's let our experts have a look at it."

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer welcomed the presidents' talks, but said it is too early to assess the Russian proposal. Meanwhile, senior government officials in Azerbaijan said the South Caucasus country was ready to discuss the possible joint use of the Gabala radar. Azerbaijan borders on the Caspian Sea, and also on Iran, one of the "rogue states" that the Pentagon's planned missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic is allegedly directed against. The U.S. national missile defense system currently deploys missile interceptors at Fort Greeley, Alaska, and at Vandenberg, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles. The U.S. also has an anti-missile radar in the U.K., at Fylingdales in North Yorkshire.

The meeting between Bush and Putin was their first since the Pentagon announced plans in January to set up a radar in the Czech republic and an interceptor missile base in Poland. Russia condemned the plans, calling them a threat to national security, and warned that the bases in Central Europe could become targets of Russian pinpoint strikes. Russia last week tested a new ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads and a new cruise missile, saying the tests were part of Moscow's response to U.S. anti-missile plans.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070608/66917850.html

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Silly politics coming out of London.

Funny, I thought diplomacy was their thing.

West is 'worried, fearful' of Russia, says Blair



Tony Blair confronted Vladimir Putin at the end of G8 summit today and told him that the West was becoming afraid of Russia's behaviour. After a week that began with the Russian President threatening to turn his country's nuclear arsenal towards Europe in retaliation for a proposed US missile shield and months of gathering tension over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London last November, Mr Blair said that he had a "perfectly frank discussion" with Mr Putin.

“President Putin set out his beliefs that Russia was not being treated properly by the West," said the Prime Minister. "And I obviously set out our view that people were becoming worried, fearful about what was happening in Russia today, the external policy."

"We had a discussion that lasted about an hour and it was a very frank discussion. It went through all the issues you would expect us to go through and we set out each other’s views, which are well known," said Mr Blair, adding that the conversation touched on energy policy, the missile shield and the Litvinenko case.

“The atmosphere on a personal level was perfectly cordial but there are real issues there and I don’t think they will be resolved any time soon.”

Mr Blair's dark assessment -- at the end of his final major summit as Prime Minister -- capped a week in which America's proposed missile shield, ostensibly aimed at the emerging threats of Iran and North Korea, has placed Russia's relationship with the West under severe strain. Tested already by disagreements over Moscow's muscular energy policy and the status of Kosovo -- Mr Putin says that if the Serbian province is granted independence, so should provinces in the Caucasus that want to rejoin Russia -- relations with Moscow have spilled into gloom over the missile system, parts of which the US wants to place in Poland and the Czech Republic.

London and Moscow have also experienced their own specific disagreements, with Russia blocking the extradition of Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB agent identified by Scotland Yard as the prime suspect in the radioactive poisoning of Litvinenko, a Putin critic and another former Russian security agent, last year. The Kremlin has refused outright to hand over Mr Lugovoy for trial while criticising Britain for offering political asylum to Boris Berezovsky, the former oligarch and billionaire considered by Mr Putin's Government to be Russia's most dangerous overseas dissident. In a mark of the continuing anger at Mr Berezovsky, Russian authorities announced another prosecution of the financier, on charges of embezzlement from Aeroflot, today.

In his own press conference after meeting Mr Blair, Mr Putin made no particular mention of Anglo-Russian relations, instead congratulating Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, on hosting a successful summit and repeating his offer to Mr Bush that any missile shield aimed at defending Europe from attack should be developed in co-operation with Moscow. Earlier this week, Mr Putin suggested that Russia and the US should set up a joint missile radar base in Azerbaijan to track threats from the Middle East and North Korea -- a proposal described as "interesting" by the White House. Today Mr Putin said that other suitable sites for missile interceptors included Turkey and Iraq.

He insisted that there was plenty of time before Iran developed missiles capable of threatening Europe -- “our American friends plan to create a missile defence system against missiles which do not exist in reality,” he said -- and urged America not to build a defence system that excluded Russia or without carrying out multi-lateral negotiations. Interrupted by a member of the Russian democracy group "Other Russia" who threw papers in the air to protest the so-called “tyranny under mass democracy” that has emerged under Mr Putin, the Russian President said that his country had survived "hard times" in recent years but promised free and fair elections to the state Duma later this year and to the presidency in 2008.

"Everyone will have the right to say what they think about present day powers. I am not violating the constitution and I will not let anyone else violate it,” he said.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1905689.ece

Britain Warns Business about Risks of Investing in Russia

Britain Warns Business about Risks of Investing in Russia
Britain’s Foreign Office has cautioned entrepreneurs against underestimating the risks related to business in Russia. Russia's potential for long-term and material economic growth is conditioned to institutional and economic reforms required to complete transition to stable market economy. At the same time, the turnover between Russia and Britain has been stepping up and the trend is expected to continue in future, the U.K. foreign authority specified.

Russia and Britain have been at odds recently, including over the UK’s extradition request for Andrey Lugovoy, whom Britain accuses of killing former FSB officer and then U.K. citizen Alexander Litvinenko. There is no hope that the clashes will boost the business. But the negative effect could be expected should the political differences turn into some sanctions or something discriminating, explained Godfrey Cromwell, executive director of Russia’s-Britain’s Chamber of Commerce.

Amid other things, the warning of Britain’s Foreign Office could be attributed to the statement of PM Tony Blair. Speaking on the flight to the G8 summit, Blair made clear he will tell Putin that the business may turn its back on Russia unless it manifests the adherence to West’s democratic values of tolerating dissent and preventing abuses of human rights.

Source: http://www.kommersant.com/p-10862/Br...warn_business/

Russia's President Affirms British Police Are Stupid

Russia's President Putin, at a press conference confirmed that with regard to the pulonium poisoning case of the ex-Russian Litvinenko in London the British police are either stupid or playing political games. He confirmed that all the responsibility for the case lies with the British government since it "allowed a significant number of criminals, thieves and terrorists to gather in Britain, creating an environment which endangers the lives and health of British citizens."

He pointed out the heads of law enforcement agencies and the Police in Britain know very well that there is no extradition laws or procedures for Russians, and yet they sent a request accompanied by much media noise, for the extradition of a Russian to England for questioning. This request was not even accompanied by any evidence, and if such evidence exists it should be presented to Russian police so that an investigation and prosecution of anyone in Russia if found guilty could proceed.

The fact that this request was sent even though it is impossible, shows that either the British police and law enforcement authorities are idiots with no knowledge and no checking of the laws of other countries in such cases, or they did it purely for publicity knowing that Russia has no authority to hand over citizens for questioning abroad by foreign police. He pointed out that the British heads of police are either complete fools or they should be in parliament or working in journalism, not investigating crimes.

He said that if Russian law enforcement agencies gather enough evidence to take anyone to court, if there is enough material in connection with any citizen of the Russian Federation to bring this evidence to court, this will certainly be done. He said he hopes very much that the British will assist effectively in this, not simply by demanding the extradition of Lugovoi, the Russian the British asked for without merit, but also by sending enough evidence so that they could put the case before a court.

Source: http://mathaba.net/news/?x=555217

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

With the United States arming Pakistan, the epicenter of the so-called Al-Qaeda/Taliban movement, the Russian Federation has begun moving closer and closer to India, Pakistan's sworn enemy.

India to get revamped aircraft carrier from Russia


Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier

In early May, an Indian naval delegation headed by Vice Admiral Birinder Singh Randhawa, Controller of Warship Production and Acquisition at the Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defense (Navy), visited Severodvinsk, a major submarine construction centre in the Arkhangelsk Region, northern Russia. In spite of cold temperatures, piercing winds and snowfalls, the visit proved very fruitful. The delegation visited the local Northern Engineering Works (Sevmashpredpriatiye) and inspected the Mk 1143.4 Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, now being refitted under a bilateral contract. The aircraft carrier, due to be renamed the Vikramaditya after a famous Indian general, is expected to enter service with the Indian Navy in August 2008.

Vice Admiral Randhawa was very pleased with the visit's results and noted many changes in the warship's upper-deck structures and interior. Although the Admiral Gorshkov's modernisation is somewhat behind schedule, Mr. Randhawa said this extremely difficult project would face problems from time to time. But he said he saw that Sevmashpredpriatiye was doing its best to solve them in time.

What is the Admiral Gorshkov?

On December 26, 1978, the keel of the Mk 1143.4 Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier was laid at the Nikolayev shipyard in Ukraine. The 273-meter long warship displaces 48,500 tons, has a beam of 49 meters and a 10.2-meter draught. The Admiral Gorshkov, which can cruise along at 30.7 knots, has a 30-day sea endurance and a 1,610-man crew. She entered service with the Soviet Navy in December 1987 and was assigned the task of guarding strategic missile submarines. For that purpose, the Admiral Gorshkov operated 14 Yakovlev Yak-141 Freestyle vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) fighters, eight Yak-38 Forger VTOL fighters, as well as 16 Kamov Ka-25 and Ka-252RLD Hormone and Ka-252PS Helix anti-submarine warfare (ASW), reconnaissance and search-and-rescue helicopters.

Moreover, the aircraft carrier, which supported warship formations and naval strategic bombers in combat areas, was supposed to attack enemy aircraft, warships and submarines. For this purpose the Admiral Gorshkov had 12 Bazalt anti-ship missile launchers, six ten-tube Udav-1 anti-submarine rocket mortars, four torpedo tubes, as well as four Klinok air-defense systems comprising 24 launchers, two 100-mm AK-100 guns and eight 30-mm AK-630 anti-aircraft guns. However, it turned out that VTOL fighters did not correspond to specifications, carried small ordnance loads, had a short combat range and crashed rather often. The disintegration of the Soviet Union and subsequent financial shortages made it impossible to eliminate these drawbacks. These warplanes were scrapped, and the Admiral Gorshkov had to be berthed.

The warship could have suffered the same sorry fate as her sister ships, namely, the Kiev, the Minsk and the Novorossiisk, that also carried Yakovlev fighters, and which were eventually sold for scrap. However, the Indian Navy took an interest in the Admiral Gorshkov and therefore prevented her destruction. Moscow and New Delhi negotiated the carrier modernization contract for many years. The Indian side insisted that Russia charge less for overhauling the Admiral Gorshkov. According to some rumors, the warship was sold to India as scrap metal, that is, for $150-$200 per tons. Moreover, New Delhi insisted that the Russian carrier be upgraded in order to accommodate horizontal take-off and landing fighters, and that its arsenal should include weapons popular with the Indian Navy. Moscow accepted all these proposals.

The $1.5 billion Gorshkov modernization contract was signed in 2004. The total overhaul expenses amounted to $600-700 million. The rest will be spent on deck fighters, equipment and weapons from third parties. The Nevskoye Design Bureau in St. Petersburg, which had developed the Admiral Gorshkov, submitted the modernization project. The warship is being overhauled at Sevmashpredpriyatiye in Severodvinsk.

All redundant artillery systems and missiles, including Bazalt launchers and AK-100 guns, will be removed during the project's initial stage. All other weapons, namely, Klinok air-defense systems, AK-630 anti-aircraft guns, and most radio-electronics and specialized equipment will also have to go. Instead the Admiral Gorshkov is to receive new-generation air-defense systems, whose specifications are not known yet. The initial modernization stage will end after obsolete machinery is replaced with up-to-date equivalents. After that, New Delhi will become the ship's legal owner.

During the second stage, India will list all the required weapons and equipment for the Vikramaditya. Her upper deck will be extended until the bow section, and a 14-degree 20-meter-wide ramp will be constructed there. The 280-meter flight deck will have a 198-meter runway for operating Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29-K Fulcrum supersonic fighters chosen by India.

The 24-meter-wide runway will feature three arrester wires, and there will also be a 130 by 23 by 5.7-meter hangar below the deck. The hangar will have a 30-ton 18.91 by 9.96-meter lift located amidships left of the island superstructure and a 20-ton 18.91 by 8.65-meter lift behind the superstructure and in front of the arrester wires. The top-deck aircraft parking area will measure 2,400 square meters. The Vikramaditya will therefore become one of the best aircraft carriers in her class.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070607/66864044.html

India to buy more T-90 tanks



India is set to sign a major arms deal with Russia to purchase 350 more upgraded T-90 main battle tanks equipped with French night visions in a deal worth $300 million. The tanks, which would be used to equip two Indian armoured divisions, are expected to be delivered within 3 to 4 years, according to Russian sources here. The deal was to be signed during the visit of a high level Russian defence delegation headed by General Alexi Fedroovich Maslov on Monday, but has run into trouble after Moscow demanded millions of dollars more in sale of additional Sukhoi fighters and Carrier Groshkov.

However, the Russians say that they are confident that the deal would go through in the next two months. India is seeking to buy these additional T-90 tanks off the shelf as production under technology transfer at Avadi heavy armament factory is slow due to technical problems. The induction of fresh T-90 tanks would mean that two of the three strike corps of the Indian Army would be equipped with these frontline weapons, which are far superior to Pakistan's T-80 tanks acquired from Ukraine.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/I...ow/2095174.cms

Indian Russia Joint Venture Produces New Jet Fighter for the Indian Air Force



In February 2007, Indian pilots and sailors were quite impressed to see the single-seat MiG-29K Fulcrum deck fighter and the two-seat MiG-29KUB deck trainer/combat plane at an airfield in Zhukovsky near Moscow. "We have known about the top-class MiG warplanes for a long time, but the MiG-29KUB that was developed by Russia and India is even better," said Commander Jasvinder Chauhan, India's Air Force Attache in Moscow.

This statement is no exaggeration because Indian experts had teamed up with designers and engineers of Russia's MiG Aircraft Corporation to develop the MiG-29KUB. They listed all the required specifications, which were embodied in the warplane. In some cases, Indian specifications may have seemed exorbitant because they exceeded the best achievements of the global aircraft industry. However, MiG complied with the requests of its clients. The Indian side helped to integrate foreign electronics into the plane's avionics, to develop simulators and to choose the required weaponry.

Nikolai Buntin, chief designer of the MiG-29KUB project for India, said the Russian Air Force and Navy lack such good planes. The MiG-29-KUB's radio-electronic system features the French-made Thales TopSight helmet-borne sighting device and the Sagem Sigma-95 laser-gyroscope inertial navigation system. Thales TopSight is, in fact, a shock-resistant helmet that will protect the pilot if a bird shatters the xxxxpit canopy. Its sighting device is activated by a movement of the head. The fighter's unique open-architecture and modular-system avionics will not become obsolete in the next ten to 15 years. Only separate components of the MiG-29KUB's radio-electronic system will have to be replaced if the need arises.

This radio-electronic system is an upgraded version of the one installed on the MiG-29SMT fighter, also serving with the Indian Air Force. It retains the MIL-1553B-type bus, to which the plane's electronics are attached, and four-channel multiplex settings. Nikolai Buntin said the MiG-29K has a more sophisticated multiplex bus than other Russian planes being sold elsewhere. He said the MiG-29KUB's vital systems feature fiber optic communications channels.

Fiber channels and fiber optic lines expedite data-exchange speeds 100 times over and enable the pilot to outmaneuver and outgun the enemy. No MiG warplane has ever had any high-speed data-exchange channels before. All three multi-purpose MFI10-6 data screens in the MiG-29KUB's front and rear xxxxpits, the IKSH-1K heads-up display (HUD) and the Thales TopSight sighting device/target-acquisition system receive video information from the Fazotron-NIIR radar, the new-generation Zhuk-ME optronic radar, other sighting and radio-electronic warfare systems and the built-in digital terrain contour matching (TERCOM) map along fiber channels.

The wide-angle sighting and navigation system, developed by the Ramenskoye PKB avionics design bureau, features a revamped BCVM486-3M computer with a 486DX processor and a 90 MHz tact frequency, as well as indicators and consoles. The system, which is the main aircraft element, also integrates other systems in line with their software packages compiled by the main MiG-29KUB contractor and main-system suppliers. The Ramenskoye PKB is responsible for integrating the plane's radio-electronic system.

The IKSH-1K (Russian acronym for Wide-Format Collimator Ship Indicator) heads-up display has never been installed on Russian planes before. Previous export-oriented aircraft versions, namely, the Sukhoi Su-30MKI and the Su-30MKM Flanker, were fitted with Israeli and French E1OP and Thales systems. However, the brighter Russian HUDs display teletext data and allow the pilot to take aim through these systems round the clock, even against targets obscured by the glaring sun.

The warplane's RD-33MK engine, which was designed at the St. Petersburg-based Klimov Plant, a major national aircraft engine manufacturer, is made at the Chernyshov Machine-Building Plant in Moscow. The first MiG-29KUB, shown to the Indian delegation, featured experimental RD-33MK engines that were delivered in December 2005. But the Klimov Plant has made considerable headway since then and increased the engine's total service life to 4,000 hours. Each engine is subject to overhaul after operating for 1,000 hours and develops 9,000 kilogram-force thrust in the afterburner mode.

Alexander Vatagin, general director of the Klimov Plant, told journalists that production engines would differ in terms of maximum thrust, smoke levels and radar visibility from those installed on the prototype plane. He said the engine would have brand-new hot section components, a new accessory box and a FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) system for greater dependability and failsafe operation. Vatagin said the customer would receive aircraft with engines completely matching the request for proposal (RFP) and specific recommendations, and comments made during bench and flight tests.

The MiG-29-KUB will be fitted with standard missiles and probably the Russian-Indian BrahMos anti-ship cruise missile. In all, the Indian Navy is to get 12 single-seat MiG-29K fighters and four two-seat MiG-29KUB planes and will also have the right to buy another 30 MiG-29-K/ MiG-29KUB warplanes. However, the latter would only be produced after 2010, if New Delhi confirms its order. The Admiral Gorshkov/Vikramaditya contract is behind schedule due to numerous reasons. It took a lot of time and effort to choose the required weapons, to eliminate ship defects and to finance specific operations. Energy resources, materials, components and spare parts have become more expensive since the contract was signed in 2004, the cost of labor in Russia has also grown.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070608/66897461.html

[skhara]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Weren't there war games between Indian and US Airforces a little while back where the Indians came away as the lopsided winners?

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Weren't there war games between Indian and US Airforces a little while back where the Indians came away as the lopsided winners?

I think you mean this one:

Foreign fighter jets performed well against F-16s in recent exercises.


Mingling over a few rounds of golf, dogfighting a bit over the jungles of West Bengal - this month's Cope India 2005 war games were billed as a standard two-week exercise between Indian and American top guns. But in website chat rooms devoted to the arcania of fighter aircraft, there was a buzz. Arre, wa! Oh, wow! Had the Indian Air Force beat the Americans? Not exactly, according to observers and participants. The exercises had mixed teams of Indian and American pilots on both sides, which means that both the Americans and the Indians won, and lost. Yet, observers say that in a surprising number of encounters - particularly between the American F-16s and the Indian Sukhoi-30 MKIs - the Indian pilots came out the winners.

"Since the cold war, there has been the general assumption that India is a third-world country with Soviet technology, and wherever the Soviet-supported equipment went, it didn't perform well," says Jasjit Singh, a retired air commodore and now director of the Center for Air Power Studies in New Delhi. "That myth has been blown out by the results" of these air exercises. For now, US Air Force officials are saying only that the Cope India 2005 air exercises were a success, and a sign of America's growing appreciation for the abilities of its newfound regional ally. But there are some signs that America's premier fighter jet, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, is losing ground to the growing sophistication of Russian-made fighter planes, and that the US should be more wary about presuming global air superiority - the linchpin of its military might.

"The Sukhoi is a ... better plane than the F-16," says Vinod Patney, a retired Indian Air Force marshal, and former vice chief of air staff. "But we're not talking about a single aircraft. We're talking about the overall infrastructure, the command and control systems, the radar on the ground and in the air, the technical crew on the ground, and how do you maximize that infrastructure. This is where the learning curve takes place. "So let's forget about I beat you, you beat me," he adds. "This is not a game of squash."

F-16s 'got their clocks cleaned'

Tell that to the participants of bharat-rakshak.com (Guardian of India). On any given day, this website seems devoted to which Indian fighter plane uses which missile, with occasional grumblings about why Saurav Ganguly is still playing on the Indian cricket team. But during Cope India '05, Bharat Rakshak was a veritable cheering session for the underestimated Indian Air Force. Typical was a posting by a blogger who called himself "Babui." Citing a quote from a US Air Force participant in Cope India '05 in Stars and Stripes - "We try to replicate how these aircraft perform in the air, and I think we're good at doing that in our Air Force, but what we can't replicate is what's going on in their minds. They've challenged our traditional way of thinking on how an adversary, from whichever country, would fight." - "Babui" wrote, "That quote is as good an admission that the F-16 jocks got their clocks cleaned."

Another blogger, Forgestone, advised against such "chest-thumping." "Coming out on the winning or losing side of a scorecard doesn't change their large technological edge, their resources, their experience, their talent, their geostrategic position," he wrote, referring to the US Air Force. More recently, an American pilot who participated in the exercise, added his own two cents on the blog. "It makes me sick to see some of the posts on this website," wrote a purported US "Viper" pilot. "They made some mistakes and so did we.... That's what happens and you learn from it." The point of the exercise, he said, was for the USAF and the IAF to train, learn, and yes, play golf alongside each other. "For two weeks of training, both sides got more out of their training than they probably would in two months."

US fighter prowess slipping

Military experts say the joint exercises occurred at a time when America's fighter jet prowess is slipping. Since the US victories in the first Gulf War, a war dependent largely on air power, the Russians and French have improved the aviation electronics (avionics) and weapons capabilities of their Sukhoi and Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft. These improvements have given countries like India, which use the Sukhois and Mirages, a rough parity with US fighter planes like the F-16 and F-15C. China, too, now has 400 late-model Sukhois. Yet, while the Indian Air Force designed the exercises to India's advantage - forcing pilots to fight "within visual range" rather than using America's highly advanced "beyond visual range" sensing equipment - both observers and participants admit that Indian aircraft and personnel performed much better than expected.

The Su-30 MKI "is an amazing jet that has a lot of maneuverability," Capt. Martin Mentch told an Air Force publication, AFPN. Maneuverability is key for missions of visual air combat. If it turns out the US Air Force did, in fact, get their clocks cleaned, it will have been the second time. In Cope India 2004, an air combat exercise that took place near the Indian city of Gwalior, US F-15s were eliminated in multiple exercises against Indian late-model MiG-21 Fishbeds as fighter escorts and MiG-27 Floggers. In the 2005 exercises in Kalaikundi air base near Calcutta, Americans were most impressed by the MiG-21 Bisons and the Su-30 MKIs.

Indian training surprises US

Maj. Mark A. Snowden, the 3rd Wing's chief of air-to-air tactics and a participant in Cope India 2004, admitted that the US Air Force underestimated the Indians. "The outcome of the [2004] exercise boils down to [the fact that] they ran tactics that were more advanced than we expected," he told Aviation Week last year. "They had done some training with the French that we knew about, but we did not expect them to be a very well-trained air force. That was silly."

One USAF controller working aboard an AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) plane told reporters at Kalaikundi Air Base that he was impressed by the speed in which Indian pilots responded to target assignments given them by AWACS. The AWACS, while operated by Americans, was acting as a neutral party, feeding target assignments to both Indian and American pilots during the exercise. In most cases, the Indians responded to target assignments faster than the American pilots did - a surprising fact, given that this was the first time Indian pilots had used the American AWACS capability.

Given India's growing economic and diplomatic aspirations, it's not surprising that many Indians would have the occasional outburst of jingoism. But Indian pilots know they still have a lot to learn. "Whether the Indians win or lose is crew room gossip," says Mr. Patney. "The important thing is for us to be involved with the Americans; the purpose is to fly alongside each other, to learn from each other, to see if there is any interoperability. And for the Americans, the main thing is to see what we [Indians] can do with limited resources."

Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1128/p01s04-wosc.html

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Breaking the shackles of the current world order by creating a 'new' world order?

The following article featuring a recent speech by Putin is quite interesting for it strongly echoes the political rhetoric we have been seeing coming out of Venezuela and Iran. Clearly, this is Moscow's attempt at leading the nations of the developing world.

Russia: New world order



Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Sunday for the creation of a new world economic order that gives greater clout to fast-growing emerging nations. Days after attending a Group of Eight summit in Germany, Putin suggested that club was outdated and failed to reflect a shift in economic power away from the industrialized West to countries like his own.

"If 50 years ago, 60 pct of the world's gross domestic product came from the G7, now it's the other way round, and 60 percent of the world's GDP is produced outside," Putin said in a speech to a major economic conference. He also took aim at financial organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, saying they were created in "a completely different reality" and had lost relevance in the fast-changing global economy. Russia is enjoying an unprecedented spell of economic growth that has enabled it to pay down its foreign debts and accumulate foreign exchange reserves of over $400 billion -- the world's third largest. Putin said the world needed to reduce its dependency on the dollar as a reserve currency, and plugged the ruble as one alternative. Russia abolished capital controls last year.

"We need several financial centers and several reserve currencies," Putin told an audience of international chief executives and government leaders attending the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. Putin declared Russia open to foreign investment, highlighting opportunities to invest in the power generation sector, now undergoing reforms to create market competition, and in infrastructure. But he called for industrialized nations not to throw up barriers to Russian companies seeking to invest abroad.

"We see how in developed countries despite the doctrine of free investment there are completely different approaches," he said. "It turns out that foreign investment is not always seen as positive and foreign participation is practically closed in those sectors such as infrastructure, telecoms and energy."

Source: http://www.maconareaonline.com/news.asp?id=17469

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Hunting the Russian Bear Why they're after Putin

By Justin Raimondo

At times it seems as though we've gone back in a time machine to the darkest, sub-zero days of the Cold War era, when Americans were frantically digging bomb shelters in their back yards, Godless Communism was on the march, and the jackboots of the KGB were just inches away from our waiting necks. Tony Blair, lecturing the Russian leader at the G-8 meeting, opined that the Western world, on behalf of which he presumed to speak, is "becoming worried, fearful about what was happening in Russia today, the external policy." These remarks echoed xxxx Cheney's sally last year against Russia's alleged attempt to use oil and gas as "tools of intimidation or blackmail, either by supply manipulation or attempts to monopolize transportation." That was said in response to Russia's threat to raise the price of energy previously sold at subsidized Soviet-era rates to Ukraine – a capitalistic act that was a bit too radical for the supposedly pro-free-market Cheney.

The Brits' beef with Putin also has to do with oil and gas. The Russian seizure of British oil assets in Siberia is being cited by free-market types as evidence that Putin is moving toward "corporatism," but is this any more "corporatist" than legislation currently on the books in the U.S. that forbids foreign ownership of key industries such as airlines and telecommunications? The hypocrisy is breathtaking. Who can forget the Dubai port-management brouhaha, when Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike demagogued the issue to score political points by conjuring the alleged threat posed by a Middle Eastern-based company having anything to do with maintaining our – rapidly decaying – "vital" infrastructure? The Dubai episode inaugurated a crackdown by U.S. regulators and inspired a host of economically disastrous yet politically popular measures in Congress that confirm "corporatism" is on the march in Washington at least as much as it is in Moscow.

Remember when Chinese investors sought to buy out the oil company Unocal? The uproar was deafening, and the deal was scotched. So it turns out that British Petroleum is no more badly treated in Russia than Chinese-owned CNOOC Ltd. is in the U.S. – which, come to think of it, is perhaps why the Brits are so irked. According to the mainstream news media's pampered pet pundits, Russian President Vladimir Putin is the reincarnation of Josef Stalin, and Russia under his rule is rapidly "backsliding" into "authoritarianism." According to Andrei Illarionov, a former economic adviser to Putin and now a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, the resurgent Russian military is about to take out its neighbors and seal a reestablished Warsaw Pact in the blood of Georgian, Ukrainian, and possibly even Polish innocents. The British, in particular, have been hyping this "new Cold War" narrative for all it's worth – which, when it comes right down to it, isn't very much.

Is Russia embarked on a return to authoritarianism? The answer has to be an unequivocal no. After all, Putin has not closed down a single Russian "dissident" media outlet – instead, like their counterparts in the U.S., Russian media barons, at the head of vast corporate conglomerates, have bought up the major television networks and newspapers and imposed a Fox News-like unanimity on correspondents and pundits alike. While this may make for boring television and patently predictable punditry, it doesn't make Russia a fascist state, as all too many people who ought to know better are trying to imply.

I had to laugh when I heard the thrilling news that "hundreds of people" marched through the streets of St. Petersburg recently to protest Putin's supposedly repressive regime. This was one of a series of "dissidents' marches" being held by the "opposition" – a seriocomic coalition of chess champion Gary Kasparov and neo-fascist crackpot Eduard Limonov. Hundreds, eh? Hundreds of thousands of antiwar marchers over the years protesting America's policy in Iraq have failed to garner as much publicity as this little band did in record time – now isn't that odd?

Odder still is the nature of the "opposition" itself: Limonov is a punk-rock skinhead "idol" and sometime novelist whose crazed views are best summed up by his National Bolshevik Party's graphic incorporation of Soviet and Nazi symbols to create the single most repulsive party emblem in all of recorded history. Kasparov, aside from his well-known exploits in the game of chess, is a pawn of American neoconservatives: his real constituency isn't in Russia, where he remains an obscure political figure, but in Washington, D.C., where he stands amid such neocon luminaries as Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and James Woolsey as a member of the Center for Security Policy. The Center is a major neocon propaganda outfit headed by longtime neocon activist Frank Gaffney, whose name is virtually synonymous with the military-industrial complex. Kasparov served on the Center's National Security Advisory Council along with Woolsey.

The neocons, by the way, are deeply committed to the Chechen cause and have been in the vanguard of the movement to demonize Putin as a latter-day Stalin: the list of endorsers of the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya replicates the seating arrangements at the front table at an American Enterprise Institute awards dinner. It was Richard Perle, you'll recall, who averred that Russia ought to be expelled from the G-8 on account of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's arrest for crimes ranging from embezzlement to conspiracy to commit murder.

The neocons have allied themselves with the Russian oligarchs, who amassed fantastic wealth in post-communist Russia by means that might meet the approval of Tony Soprano, not the Better Business Bureau. These oligarchs seethe at their expulsion as they plot from abroad to return the country to their clutches. For years now, an unsavory popular front of Chechen terrorists, neoconservative hawks, and shady Russian oligarchs wearing Moss Lipow dark sunglasses and gobs of gold chains has massed at the gates of Moscow, demanding the ouster of the czar – and the clamor has now been taken up by Western governments.

"It would be funny if it wasn't so sad" was Putin's response to the U.S. insistence that Poland and Czechoslovakia put anti-missile technology in place in order to guard against the supposed "threat" from an attack… launched by Iran. The joke is that the Iranians don't have missiles that can reach either Warsaw or Prague. To pretend that these anti-missile systems are aimed at an "enemy" other than Russia is the measure of the West's disdain for Putin: like a schoolyard bully who "accidentally" shoves his victims on the playground, they don't even bother to convincingly conceal their belligerence.

Putin's counterproposal to help set up a missile-interception system in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan is a deft deflection of Western claims that Putin poses a renewed Russian threat to the security of Europe. If the U.S. and Britain are genuinely concerned about a possible Iranian strike at the former Eastern bloc, then they'll sign on to Putin's generous offer. Their hesitation, one has to conclude, speaks volumes about their real motives for putting up the missile shield in the first place. Just as the demonstrators in the streets of Russian cities are seemingly intent on provoking the Russian police into a violent response, so the Western powers – alarmed at the rise of Putin on the world stage as the Americans' chief antagonist and most eloquent critic – are engaged in a series of large-scale provocations, including but not limited to the Eastern European missile shield.

Another irritant to Russia's increasingly fractious relations with the West is the issue of Kosovo's independence. Again, the Western love of double standards comes into play here, with Kosovo's alleged "right" to nationhood being upheld by an American president while the corresponding "right" of Russian-speaking (or pro-Russian) areas of the former Soviet Union, such as Abkhazia and the Transdniester Republic, to independence goes unrecognized by the West.

The real evidence, however, of just how badly relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated is the strange case of Alexander Litvinenko and the mystery surrounding his death. Having covered this subject at length in previous columns, I won't elaborate on the arcane technical and other details of this downright weird episode, which seems like a story straight out of a Hollywood thriller, except to say that the "official" version of how Litvinenko came to be poisoned by a rare radioactive substance, polonium-210, stinks to high heaven.

This narrative, which holds that Litvinenko was targeted by the KGB because of his alleged status as a Russian "dissident" living in exile in London, doesn't hold up under even the most forgiving scrutiny. After all, why kill him with a rare and easily traced substance – and with such an overdose that the cost alone would seem to rule out this method – when a simple shot in the back of the head would suffice? The sheer amount of disinformation and propagandistic nonsense dished out by the British tabloids alone on the subject probably consumed enough paper to deforest half of South America. Nor is the British indictment of Andrei Lugovoi enough to paper over the huge holes in the "official" story. Lugovoi, at any rate, is fighting back, with revelations that the Brits and Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky tried to recruit him to root out the dirt on Putin.

In any case, the Litvinenko affair emanates the aura of a gigantic, somewhat sinister scam, perhaps involving the smuggling of polonium and the involvement of Islamic terrorist cells associated with the Chechens. What ought to worry us is that someone was possibly trying to assemble a "dirty bomb" of the type Jose Padilla was accused of masterminding – in the heart of London.

There seems little doubt the color-coded "revolutions," with Western material and moral support, targeted the former Soviet "near abroad" and aimed at reducing Russian influence and putting Putin on the defensive. The construction of a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe was the last straw. What had been primarily a propaganda campaign aimed at the Kremlin has now taken a decidedly military turn, one that bodes ill for the future and the cause of peace. There are those who never reconciled themselves to the end of the Cold War – that crucible in which the pestilential sect known as the neoconservatives was born and raised – and it seems a supreme effort is being made to revive it.

Today we hear endless stories about how the Russian leader and his country pose a threat to Western interests: Russia is "authoritarian," newly aggressive, "anti-Semitic," and, yes, even "homophobic." As the memory of 9/11 fades and the meaning of that historic disaster is increasingly disputed, the War Party needs fresh enemies whose alleged evil will thrill the popular imagination and satiate their hunger for villainy. Putin, flush with oil money and eager to regain Russia's place in the sun, fits the bill nicely.

The truth is more prosaic. Putin is no dictator, and Russia, far from backsliding into neo-communism, is in a better position than ever to create a middle-class-based liberal democracy with the rule of law roughly comparable to the system that prevails in the West. The general rise in the Russian standard of living, after a catastrophic post-communist decline, puts a brake on any backward-looking authoritarian movement (neo-communist or otherwise) making appreciable progress.

That this occurred under Putin is the reason for the Russian president's enormous popularity and accounts for the marginalization of his opponents. As much as Western liberals and neocons loathe Putin and the prospect of a resurgent Russia, it doesn't look like regime change is on the agenda in the former Soviet Union, in spite of millions being poured into the region by Western governments to aid the opposition. The endless provocations aimed at the Kremlin will only have the effect of irritating the Russian bear – and creating yet more anti-American and anti-Western sentiment. As if we don't have enough of that already…

Russia has come a long way from being the land of the gulags, and it is never going to go back to that – not unless the West succeeds in looting that country, once again, and creating a Russian version of the Weimar Republic. This is precisely why lunatics of Eduard Limonov's ilk have joined the opposition as its noisiest and most visible wing – because the rise of Putin, who created order out of mafia-inspired chaos, short-circuited the Weimar Russia scenario and diverted the Russians down a different path.

Source: http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11115