The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

[KarotheGreat]

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

Russia's new security strategy: sleeker and stronger

Dmitry Medvedev has signed the final version of Russia’s new security strategy. While it focuses on economic development and people’s welfare, the document has some harsh words for US policy and NATO.

In the overview of national defense, the strategy names as a threat the “policy of some leading countries, aimed at military supremacy” by building up nuclear and conventional strategic arms, unilateral development of anti-ballistic missile defense and militarization of space. The policy “may trigger a new arms race,” the document warns.

While Russia is not going to waste money on stockpiling its arsenals, it will “act in a least costly manner to keep party with the United States of America in terms of strategic weapons,” to counter the ABM system and take into account the global strike concept in the US military doctrine. The latter refers to the stated ability of US forces to strike at any target in the world in a matter of half a day.

In practical terms the new strategy means that Russia will keep its nuclear forces at a high degree of readiness, while continuing with its military reform, which will see Russian troop numbers reduced and transformed into an instrument of solving regional conflicts.

At the same time the document, which was published on the national Security Council’s website, says Russia’s relations with the US have a key influence on the global situation and calls on building a strategic partnership based on mutual interests. Russia will seek confidence-building, strategic disarmament, the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, joint anti-terrorism efforts and partnership in solving regional conflicts.

The new national strategy dismisses NATO’s expansion plans and ‘attempts to assume global functions’ as unacceptable to Russia. It says the relations with the North-Atlantic alliance will be determined by its willingness to “take into account Russia’s lawful interests,” “to respect international law” and its reform, which will help the bloc find a new mission and humanitarian functions.

Competition for natural resources is bound to grow while the benefits of globalization are distributed unfairly among nations, which will increase tension. According to the new strategy, key regions of conflict will be the energy-rich Middle East, the Arctic, the Caspian Sea and Central Asia. The tension may escalate into open wars near the borders of Russia and its allies.

The document says Russia will modernize its border troops to be prepared for possible military conflicts and to prevent crimes like trafficking of drugs, weapons and human beings, smuggling and poaching. Borders with Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan as well as regions of the Arctic, the Caspian Sea and the Far East require special attention.

export nature of Russia’s industry, its overt dependence on global markets, labor inefficiency, vulnerable financial system and corruption. The document suggests focusing on state-private partnership in key industries, support high-tech projects, facilitate trade for Russian producers and fight corruption. The goal is to become the fifth country in the world in terms of GDP.

Among other threats to Russia’s national security the strategy names: global financial crises, which “may have a devastating effect comparable to the large-scale use of military force”; terrorism and extremism; social injustice; epidemics and socially dangerous decease like tuberculosis; a lack of domestically produced food and medicine; the industrial impact on Russia’s environment, and cybercrime.

National Security Strategy 2020

The document outlining Russia’s policy in security until 2020 replaces the 1997 paper, which was outdated, according to many experts. The work on it started in September 2008, shortly after the conflict in South Ossetia, and was finished by the end of March this year. Some media speculated that the signing of the document was postponed until Dmitry Medvedev’s meeting with Barack Obama in April and said the ‘anti-American’ statements in it may have been changed after it.

One of the key differences of the new strategy is the list of indicators, which are to show how secure Russia is. These include the unemployment level, inflation, the disproportion of people’s incomes, national debt and others.

[KarotheGreat]

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

Russia sets new world record in the conquest of the North Pole

A new record in the exploration of the Arctic was set on Sunday (April 26) when wheeled cars reached the geographical North Pole. No one has ever been able to do it before.

Two Russian-made Yemelya experimental vehicles have traveled over 1,100 kilometers across drift ice of the Arctic and reached the North Pole.

“This victory is the result of two years of our training to have the vehicles ready for the severe Arctic conditions. We also did the profound analysis of previous Russian missions to the north,” the leader of the ice mission Vasily Yelagin told Itar-Tass.

“No one else works in this direction – to explore drift ice on wheeled cars. We have proved our advantage yet again,” the specialist added.

A Yemelya car is a rescue in the conditions of the snowy north. Unlike conventional tracked cross-country vehicles, they do not leave any traces on ice, they are very comfortable and fuel efficient.

The polar team includes such travelers as Sergei Larin, Vladimir Obikhod, Nikolai Nikulshin, Aleksei Shkrabkin, Vasili Makovnev and Aleksei Ushakov.

The team is now heading to the Russian ice air base, which is located 80 kilometers far from the North Pole. The vehicles and their drivers will return to the mainland from there.

[KarotheGreat]

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

Kremlin chief of staff pledges aid for S. Ossetia, even military

MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will continue to assist South Ossetia in all areas, including military assistance if required, the chief of the Russian presidential administration said Thursday.

"Russia has provided and will provide South Ossetia with all necessary economic, political, and, if necessary, military assistance," Sergei Naryshkin told Russia's Vesti TV channel.

Naryshkin said "the cynical aggression of the [Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili regime" had inflicted a great loss upon South Ossetia and Abkhazia, destroying the social and infrastructure.

"Of course, Russia could not have stayed detached. It aided, maybe even saved South Ossetia and the South Ossetian nation from annihilation," the chief of the Kremlin administration said.

"The nation had no other choice but to declare its independence and Russia of course recognized the independence of South Ossetia," Naryshkin said.

Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states after last August's five-day war with Georgia, which launched a military offensive on South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control.

President Dmitry Medvedev said that the move was "the only way to protect people's lives." Western powers called the decision unacceptable.

The republics split from Georgia in bloody post-Soviet conflicts, and their residents have been Russian passport holders for many years.

[KarotheGreat]

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

It's time to get this thread some life has been non active for too long.

Russia, Abkhazia 'to sign military base deal soon'
SOCHI, May 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Abkhazia will sign an agreement on the deployment of a Russian military base in the former Georgian republic within the next two weeks, the Abkhaz president said on Thursday.

"The land has been allocated, a location identified, and work has started there. We are awaiting an agreement between the republic and the Russian Defense Ministry," Sergei Bagapsh told journalists after a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

"It [the agreement] is almost ready. I think it will be signed in a week or two," he said.

The Abkhaz president earlier said Russia would have a total of 3,800 troops deployed in the republic for the next 49 years.

Bagapsh also said units of Russian border guards will be deployed on Abkhazia's state border by the beginning of June.

"One more group of border guards will arrive by that time. By the beginning of June we plan to finish this process. Russian border guards will assume duty jointly with Abkhaz border guards," he said.

Russia signed in late April joint border protection agreements with the former Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Under the agreements, Russia will guard the Abkhaz and South Ossetian borders, including maritime frontiers, until both republics form their own border guard services. The agreements, for an initial period of five years, can be renewed upon their expiration.

Bagapsh ruled out the possibility of asking Moscow in the near future to become part of Russia.

"Why would we approach Russia with such a request so soon when Russia only recently recognized us as an independent state?" he said in reply to a reporter's question.

Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states on August 26 last year after a five-day war with Georgia, which attacked South Ossetia to try to regain control of the province, which had been de facto independent since the early 1990s.

NATO incubates plot against Obama

party' inside NATO does not want to let the partnership between Russia and the North Atlantic Organization happen. Moreover, this party plots against the US President who strives to reset the relationship between Washington and Moscow, Russia's Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said.

Rogozin is sure that this 'war party' masterminded the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from Brussels.

“Someone wanted to push Russia towards making tough measures. They wanted to trigger an international scandal, but Russia is not playing these games,” he said.

Rogozin presumes that there are officials the Alliance who are highly discontented with the policy of the new American leader.

“The USA is now forming a new team. They are selecting new foreign affairs staff and new negotiators. There are people who received their posts under the previous administration, and they still adhere to the principles that they were following in the past. We regard a plot inside the North Atlantic Organization against Obama as conceivable” Dmitry Rogozin said.

Rogozin supposes that the difficulties in relations between Russia and NATO are connected with “two mutually exclusive concepts that coexist in the heads of NATO strategists”. The first concept is to play the role of an international policeman. The second one is to defend collectively against a specific enemy. In the first case, the role of an enemy is played by international terrorism, but the second concept needs a more “palpable” enemy.

“This “bugaboo role” was previously played by the USSR, now Russia must play it according to the second concept. So, any improvement of relations with Russia will damage the second project”, the official said.

[hrai]

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

I heard their was a failed coupe in Georgia , where this exercise will take place.

From : novinite.com Sofia News Agency

Georgia Tank Mutiny amidst Fears of Attempted CoupWorld | May 5, 2009, Tuesday


A tank battalion mutiny in Georgia has sparked fears of a military coup. Photo by challengedividend.com
A tank battalion has mutinied at a military base near Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, the government has said.

Tanks and armored personnel carriers are being sent to quell the rebellion at the Mukhrovani base, reports say.

The authorities say the mutiny is part of an attempted coup - linked to Russia and aimed at assassinating President Mikhail Saakashvili, the BBC reported.

A Russian official says the charges are "delirium". The trouble comes a day before Nato exercises in Georgia.

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev has condemned Nato for planning military exercises in a country "where there was just a war".

Georgia and Russia have poisonous relations, and fought a war over Georgia's breakaway territory of South Ossetia last August.

The mutiny at the Mukhrovani base, some 20km from Tbilisi, erupted on Tuesday morning, when soldiers began disobeying orders, Georgian officials said.

The soldiers were aiming at "disrupting Nato exercises and overturning the authorities militarily", Georgian Defence Minister David Sikharulidze told Georgian television.

It was not immediately known how many soldiers were taking part in the mutiny.

"The rebellion continues. Law enforcement agents are on the scene," Sikharulidze said.

The mutiny broke out as the government announced it had disrupted a coup plot.

The interior ministry told the BBC that the plotters wanted to destabilize Georgia and assassinate President Saakashvili.

A spokesman said there had been one arrest, but that the leader of the plot - a former chief of special forces - was still at large.

The spokesman said the government had been aware of the plot for two months.

The rebellion appeared to be "co-ordinated with Russia", the interior ministry said.

But the Itar-Tass news agency cited a source in Russia's security services describing the coup plot allegations as the "delirium and agony of the Saakashvili regime".

In a separate development, opposition protests are continuing in Tbilisi.

The demonstrators say they plan to bloc three main roads into the capital later on Tuesday.

[Pazooki]

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

Im sick and tired of reading that Artsakh is considered part of Azerbaijan. xxxxing BS!!!

[Haykakan]

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

If it is true then too bad it failed.

[Gavur]

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

I heard their was a failed coupe in Georgia , where this exercise will take place.

[Haykakan]

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

Somethin tells me Putin made a late phone call to Serjik.

[Federate]

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

More on the NATO exercise and another given reason for Armenia's withdrawal.
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Armenia officially pulls out of NATO-led drills in Georgia



YEREVAN, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Armenia will not take part in upcoming NATO-led military exercises in Georgia, the Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

"The Defense Ministry of the Republic of Armenia announces that due to the current situation, Armenian troops will not take part in NATO's Cooperative Longbow /Cooperative Lancer 2009 in Georgia," the ministry said in a statement.

The Armenian Aravot newspaper earlier said the decision was made after a meeting last Wednesday in Brussels between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at which the NATO chief supported the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Relations have been tense for more than two decades between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorny Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely Armenian population. The region declared its independence in a 1991 after a referendum boycotted by local Azerbaijanis. The ensuing conflict claimed some 35,000 lives before a ceasefire was signed in 1994. The area technically remains part of Azerbaijan, but has its own de facto government.

The Cooperative Longbow/Cooperative Lancer 2009 command-and-staff exercise, which Moscow has criticized as unhelpful in the wake of last summer's armed conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia, is scheduled for May 6-June 1.

According to NATO, the drills are aimed at improving interoperability between NATO and partner countries, within the framework of Partnership for Peace, Mediterranean Dialogue and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative programs, and will not involve any light or heavy weaponry.

Over 1,300 troops from 19 NATO member or ally states were originally scheduled to participate, but Kazakhstan, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova and Serbia have already withdrawn.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan confirmed on May 1 its participation in the NATO-led exercises, and stressed the country's commitment to relations with NATO and its active participation in the Individual Partnership Action Plan.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20090505/121452409.html