The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

[Armenian]

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

Russia successfully tests short-range missile interceptor



October 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has successfully test-fired a short-range anti-ballistic missile at a test site in Kazakhstan, a Space Forces spokesman said Thursday. "A combined team of the Space Forces, the Sary Shagan testing site and industry officials fired a short-range interceptor missile at a target missile," Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin said. He said the launch had been conducted to assess the possibility of extending of the service life of interceptor missiles on combat duty around Moscow. According to some reports, at least 68 short-range A-135 interceptors (NATO reporting name Gazelle) are currently deployed in the Moscow missile defense system to protect radars and strategically important infrastructure. The Gazelle, with an effective range of up to 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) is similar in design and mission to the U.S. Sprint missile of the U.S. Safeguard system. The Sary Shagan testing site on the west bank of Lake Balkhash has been operational since October 1958. In recent years, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces conducted tests of six anti-missile systems, 12 air defense systems, seven types of missile interceptors, 12 types of ground-to-air missiles and 18 radars at the site.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071011/83439840.html

Armavir radar to be on combat duty late in 2007

October 3 (RIA Novosti) - A state-of-the-art radar being built near Armavir, in southern Russia, will be on combat duty in late 2007, Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin, the commander of the Russian Space Forces said Wednesday. In an interview with Krasnaya Zvezda - Red Star, a Russian military newspaper - Popovkin said the radar located near the town of Armavir, in the Krasnodar Territory would start combat duty in late 2007, updating his previous statements that it would open in 2008. The site is about 700 km (450 miles) to the northwest of the Iranian border, and just 100 km (62 miles) to the north of Sochi, the Russian alpine resort on the Black Sea, which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics. The general said a similar radar station, located in Lekhtusi, near St. Petersburg, became operational in late 2006. The radar was built to fill a gap in national radar coverage that existed for seven years after the closure in 1998 of an obsolete Dnestr-M radar in the Latvian town of Skrunde, 150 km (93 miles) from the ex-Soviet Baltic capital of Riga. Russia leases ground-based radar stations in Baranovichi, Belarus; Sevastopol and Mukachevo, Ukraine; Balkhash, Kazakhstan; and Gabala, Azerbaijan. It also has radars on its own territory in Murmansk, northwest Arctic, Pechora, northwest Urals, and Irkutsk, east Siberia. President Vladimir Putin, during his two-day meeting with President George W. Bush in Kennebunkport, Maine, in July, proposed incorporating the new radar into a missile defense system managed by the NATO-Russia Joint Permanent Council. Russia also said it was ready to upgrade its early warning radar in Gabala, Azerbaijan, which was also proposed as an alternative to the deployment of an anti-missile shield in Central Europe.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071003/82279265.html

Russia, India to build new joint hypersonic missile in 5-7 yrs

September 24 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos will complete work on a new hypersonic missile in five to seven years' time, an Indian defense official said Monday. The official said the missile, five times faster than the speed of sound, will be practically impossible to intercept, adding that countries were set to discuss the details of the project shortly. In 1998, Russia and India established a joint venture, BrahMos Aerospace, to design, develop, produce and market a supersonic cruise missile. Sea-based and land-based versions of the missile have been successfully tested and put into service with the Indian Army and Navy. The Brahmos missile, named after India's Brahmaputra River and Russia's Moskva River, has a range of 180 miles and can carry a conventional warhead of up to 660 pounds. It can hit ground targets flying at an altitude as low as 10 meters (30 feet) and at a speed of Mach 2.8, which is about three times faster than the U.S.-made subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile. Work is currently underway to create aircraft and submarine-based BrahMos missiles. The airborne version could be installed on the Sukhoi-30MKI air superiority fighters of the Indian Air Force. Experts estimate that India might purchase up to 1,000 BrahMos missiles for its Armed Forces in the next decade, and export 2,000 to third countries during the same period. In 2000, Russia and India signed a 10-year program on military-technical cooperation, which currently lists about 130 R&D and production projects.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/world/20070924/80615263.html

[Armenian]

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

Politicus: Sarkozy tries charm, but Putin isn't budging on Iran arms question



MOSCOW: One more time, Vladimir Putin has told the world that Iran is not working on a nuclear bomb.

Once again, with Nicolas Sarkozy in a passing role as discomforted foil, Putin has taken this most frightening of planetary issues and said in effect that the prospect of nuclear weapons in the hands of the mullahs was a delusion, an international fantasy. Indeed, Putin made all this out as a fable that his Russia - Iran's protector and supplier of nuclear wherewithal - could confidently dismiss. Here, in about 20 minutes Wednesday, was a moment of exceptional arrogance and darkness. Sarkozy, who had come to Moscow for two days as a doubter hoping to find something reasonable in Putin (even praising him as courageous, direct and determined), wound up being publicly contradicted as a know-nothing for his stance asserting that Iran is driving hard toward producing nukes.

This excruciating, face-to-face public episode during a news conference in the Kremlin's St. Catherine Hall left Sarkozy dangling in embarrassment, his good intentions xxxxxled by his host. Somberly, and in much more significant terms, Putin was also confirming the basically intractable Russian position on Iran's Islamic extremist nuclear threat. Putin explained, "We do not have any data that says Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons. We do not have such objective data. Therefore, we proceed from the position that Iran has no such plans."

This says: since Iran has only peaceful intentions, there is no ultimate problem, or any need to discuss solutions for resolving the nonexistent. And that means: when Western visitors ask Putin what he will do in the end, beyond tactical fiddling, to halt Iran's nuclear drive - a question posed directly to him this year by another European leader - the answer is unclear and unsatisfactory. It has never been, don't worry, I'll help, it won't happen. Rather, the response is a molasses-heavy fudge involving improbable questions and nonassurances about Iran's intentions.

So when Sarkozy told reporters Tuesday night of a "very clear convergence of views" emerging "with Vladimir" on Iran, and said he did not want to say more in light of Putin's visit to Tehran next week, the idea flickered that Putin might be moving on the basics and off his see-no-evil approach. After all, consider the corner where this optimism was coming from: a French president who has been verbally tough on Russia, who twice proclaimed himself to Putin on Tuesday as "a clear ally of the United States" and who has said rather more explicitly than George W. Bush that Iran is working on a nuclear device. As Sarkozy's spokesman put it last month: "Everybody knows this program has military intentions."

Along came the Wednesday news conference. Where at first it had been Vladimir, Vladimir, Vladimir on Sarkozy's side, Putin directed his remarks to Mr. President. French reporters picked up a change from Putin's use of the palsy-walsy "tu" form in addressing Sarkozy to the more distant "vous." And Sarkozy scaled back the "strong rapprochement" talk of the night before to "a certain convergence."

Sarkozy discovered a Putin who decided not to play charmed and ready-for-change on the strength of the arguments of a newcomer eager to portray himself as Europe's go-to leader. Hearing himself rebuffed, the French president, in recovery mode, waded into some murky syntactic waters. As transcribed by Reuters's French-language news service, he said: "So, there can be diverging analyses on 'they (the Iranians) are doing it.' I think everybody is in agreement. Do they want to use it? That's a question of analysis."

Deconstructed, Sarkozy seemed to be saying here that the Russians agree Iran is enriching uranium at a pace that raises questions. But that's hardly new. And neither is what he described as Putin's "will to cooperate" in the United Nations, where Russia has sought to block a new round of sanctions. Or for that matter, Putin's expressed interest in "more transparency" from Iran on a nuclear program they've hidden for decades. Short of a major surprise in Tehran next week, there was no sign that Sarkozy had gotten anything from Putin - remember that France regards an Iran with nukes as intolerable - to be held aloft as an achievement.

Not that Sarkozy caved on his basic take on Russia. With Moscow students, he chided Moscow's interest in re-establishing a clear zone of influence in the countries at its borders. He complained about it using energy supply for political ends, noted the disappearance of democracy, met with activists critical of the regime and said that Europe would recognize Kosovo's independence regardless of Russia's objections. But he offered compliments and got none in return, and insisted on sounding optimistic without demonstrating the specifics. In the end, Sarkozy sought to create the picture of the start of a comfortable relationship with a hard man who hadn't the tiniest of concessions for someone who a few weeks earlier accurately described Russia as "a country which complicates the resolution of the world's greatest problems."

Sarkozy's domestic political method of trying to claim a triumph per day banged into the Kremlin wall and fell flat. A smart and resilient politician, Sarkozy may find instruction here from Putin about the functioning of the wide world. As for Putin himself, he offered a universal lesson.

He will attempt to protect Iran as long as it is useful to him, leveraging the Iranian threat into a role of essential influence for Russia in the Middle East, pushing the United States into inactivity or a military response and calculating that there's advantage to Russia in every possible outcome, even in a nuke or two marked with the insignia of the mullahs' Revolutionary Guards. The answer to this predicament, as it has always been, is direct U.S. talks with the Iranians. They would not only end Russian control of the issue, but raise pressure on the regime in Tehran from its people. It is the Iranians themselves who can best see the danger of Iran becoming a nuclear warrior in the awful equation Sarkozy drew last month that no one wants as an alternative: An Iranian bomb, or the bombing of Iran.

Source: http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=7850341

[Armenian]

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

East: Making Sense Of Post-Soviet Alphabet Soup



October 10, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Youth leaders from the four member states of the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development meet today in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku. GUAM, which groups Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova, is just one of the myriad alliances that arose from the ashes of the Soviet Union and are now vying for control of the region. The GUAM youth summit comes just days after a gathering in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, of officials from the 12 former Soviet republics that form the Commonwealth of Independent States, or CIS. The CIS summit featured sideline meetings between additional regional groupings. The six-member Eurasian Economic Community, or Eurasec, held talks. The Collective Security Treaty Organization, or CSTO, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO, signed an important agreement to pool resources.

Alphabet Soup

The dizzying assortment of regional alliances -- together with their perplexing acronyms -- is one of the legacies of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some of these groupings, like the CIS, followed in the immediate wake of the USSR; others in the late 1990s. Some are concerned with security and defense, while others focus mainly on economic development. Only close observers are likely able to recite the membership and official aims of all of the groups. But Alexandre Rondeli, the head of the Georgian Foundation for Strategy and International Studies in Tbilisi, makes it simple. All of these organizations, he says, can be roughly split into two camps.

"Some countries try to defend themselves and form alliances to counter Russian threats and even Russian economic pressure," Rondeli says. "Other alliances and groups are created by Russia, or Russia's close allies, to restore a post-imperial space under Russian domination."

Under that model, GUAM -- which stands for the name of its four members, Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova -- would fall into the first category. Although its leaders insist the group is not directed against any other state, the westward-leaning ambitions evident in varying degrees in its members have contributed to its reputation as an anti-Moscow alliance. Lately, GUAM has focused on extending an oil pipeline from Brody in Ukraine to the Polish city of Gdansk, which would enable Azerbaijan to pump oil directly to Western Europe, bypassing Russia. The leaders of Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Georgia, Poland, and Lithuania are expected to discuss the project today at an energy summit in the Lithuanian Baltic Sea town of Klaipeda. Also high on GUAM's agenda are plans to create a multinational peacekeeping force that would replace the Russian contingent currently deployed in the Moscow-backed separatist regions of Transdniester in Moldova, and of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia.

'Anti-Russian'

Expectedly, Russian officials have consistently accused the alliance of being anti-Russian and denounced it as an instrument used by the United States, a GUAM sponsor, and other Western nations to try to undermine Russia's clout in the region. "The geopolitical context of this organization is definitely anti-Russian," says Konstantin Zatulin, the head of the CIS Institute in Moscow and a State Duma deputy for the country's Unified Russia ruling party. "Some are making use of the unfulfilled ambitions or internal problems of certain countries which, for a number of reasons, do not or cannot work with Russia like others. The West needs this organization to compensate for Russia's influence and revival, to contain it."

Others, like Rondeli in Tbilisi, say Moscow is simply riled by the efforts of GUAM member states to break out of Moscow's orbit. "Russia has always seen GUAM as a menace," Rondeli says. "Any alliance or organization that doesn't include Russia or that isn't dominated by Russia is considered an enemy, hostile. [Russia] is trying to destroy it by influencing certain countries, for example [former GUAM member] Uzbekistan and Moldova." The pro-Western presidents of Ukraine and Georgia, Viktor Yushchenko and Mikheil Saakashvili, both swept to power after mass protests that toppled Moscow-friendly regimes. Both are at loggerheads with the Kremlin.

While Moldova also leans increasingly westward, Azerbaijan has retained a more conciliatory position, avoiding confrontation with Moscow. All four heads of state have called for increased cooperation between GUAM and NATO and the European Union. Yushchenko's rise to the presidency has also poured cold water on Moscow's hopes of creating a common economic space comprising Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Instead, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week during the Dushanbe CIS summit that Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan will launch a customs union in 2011 within the framework of Eurasec. He said the union may later grow to embrace the three other Eurasec members -- Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.

Three of the four GUAM members -- Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova -- have meanwhile threatened to desert the CIS altogether. Many Commonwealth member states have aired frustration with what is seen as Moscow's domineering role in the group. A number of policy watchers have seen the deepening rifts within the CIS as signs heralding its disintegration. But Alexander Rahr, a CIS expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations, says shifting alliances are only natural in the context of transition. "One thing has changed. In the 1990s, post-Soviet countries were poor; they were dependent on the West or on Asia for resources. Today, the situation has dramatically changed," Rahr says. "These countries have reached unexpectedly high levels of economic growth, so they will develop their own interests in each other, their own way of building the future together."

Rahr nonetheless upholds the view that shifts within the CIS are crystallizing into two camps, with GUAM countries increasingly setting their sights on the West. The result, he says, is that Russia is rallying allies in the East. "Russia has understood that it has no future building a new reintegration model with countries like Ukraine or Georgia, which are heading westward," he says. "So Moscow is moving toward the east, toward the Central Asian states, which are eager to have some kind of alliance with Russia. I think the idea of a gas cartel that would include this region's energy-rich countries is something that Moscow is envisaging for itself in the near future."

Still, there are other regional groupings that bring Moscow and some of its dissenters to the table. The Black Sea Economic Cooperation group, or BSEC, brings together 12 countries, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine, with the expressed aim of fostering stability and integration in the Black Sea region. There is also the informal grouping of the Caspian Sea littoral states, which comprises Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan. Tehran is due to host the next Caspian Sea summit on October 16.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle...12AE06D1E.html

[Armenian]

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

Russia Says 300 Spies Caught In Last 4 Years



MOSCOW (RIA Novosti ) - The head of Russia's Federal Security Service told a popular weekly that the FSB had identified over 300 foreign spies over the past four years. "More than 270 actively operating agents and 70 foreign intelligence recruits, including 35 Russians, have been exposed since 2003," Argumenty i Fakty quoted Nikolai Patrushev as saying. He said that 14 agents and 33 recruits have been caught this year alone. Patrushev said six Russians were caught in an attempt to transfer state secrets to foreign countries, and have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Retired Colonel Valentin Shabaxturov was given a 12-year sentence this year for treason and espionage. The court proved he had actively cooperated with foreign intelligence for seven years, from 1999 to 2006, and revealed state secrets to them. Igor Arsentyev, a lieutenant colonel in the reserves, was sentenced to nine years in prison on the same charges in September. Patrushev said another person is facing court proceedings, and that an investigation is underway into three other cases. He said the United States and Britain actively used the secret services of Poland, Georgia and Baltic states against Russia. "This concerns a wide spectrum - from staff composition and budget allocations to strategic guidance and organization of joint operations," Patrushev said. He also said some Georgian secret agents use their connections with the criminal underworld for their operations, and to stage various acts of provocation. According to Patrushev, British intelligence is particularly active against Russia, in its attempts to influence the country's domestic political developments.

Source: http://mnweekly.ru/national/20071011/55281841.html

[Armenian]

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

Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan: Azerbaijan estranges itself from Russia to please U.S.

Calls to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict by use of force become more frequent in Azerbaijan. President Aliyev’s statements on “determination to liberate their lands” meet approval among media and politicians, who sometimes call for war against Armenia as well. PanARMENIAN.Net requested political scientist Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan to comment on Azeri statements.

Question: Well known Azeri political scientist Vafa Guluzade has announced necessity “to deploy a couple of Turkish divisions in Nakhichevan and aim them at Yerevan and Russian bases in Gyumri.” Will you comment on this statement?

Guluzade, once a renowned “hawk” in Baku, was plucked and a bit broiled by Heydar Aliyev. Now he is playing up to Aliyev junior. However, it’s not his personal ambitions. Guluzade sounds “fresh ideas” if they are meant to please Ilham Aliyev’s and fit Azerbaijan’s foreign policy, which aims at integration with U.S. and NATO and confrontation with Russia. In this respect, Guluzade’s statement clearly reflects the aspirations of Azerbaijan, which eyes Armenia, NKR, Russia and Iran as enemies. I should mention that Azerbaijan is immoderately trying to satisfy its new patrons.

Question: Nevertheless, is the scenario with Turkish divisions possible?

I don’t think it’s possible in the near future, since it will transform a local conflict into global war. Modern Turkey is not an independent military state. It’s bound by commitments with NATO. I do not think that NATO is interested in an armed confrontation for the sake of Azerbaijan’s unsatisfied territorial ambitions.

Azerbaijan is dreaming to be carried back to the times when all domestic and foreign tasks were settled under Turkey’s supervision. CSTO Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha furnished a worthy comment on the issue. When asked about current threats, Mr Bordyuzha said, “These are militant statements by representatives of various countries to resolve the so-called frozen conflict by use of force. It refers to escalation of military activities, boost of defense budget and personnel number in Georgia and Azerbaijan.”
However, our history records that in 1918 the Turkish army led by Nuri intervened in the Caucasus. As result, the Azerbaijani Republic was formed. At that time Turkish ascetics and recruits from Caucasian Tatars (future Azeris) slaughtered not only Armenian peasants but also Russian soldiers who were returning to Russia from the Caucasian front. Over 3 thousand Russian soldiers were killed in Shamkhor. Massacre of Russian soldiers took place in Ghazakh, Gyandja and even in Baku suburbs – Baladjary and Surakhany. Simply, Azerbaijan had high hopes for Turkey then. Presently, it worships the United States and NATO.

Question: It turns out that Guluzade’s statement is a mere populist trick…

Not exactly. It’s a propagandistic canard. I repeat, Guluzade sounds Azerbaiajan’s foreign ambitions. This republic estranges itself from Russia to please the U.S. Do you remember the headlines of Saturday edition of pro-governmental Zerkalo (Mirror) Baku-based newspaper? “Russia levies war on Azerbaijan and Georgia”, “Putin’s provocation fails”, “New imperial spurt ahead”… All this is meant to demonstrate adherence to Washington. However, Baku dislikes confessing that the majority of population lives at expense of transfers made by Azeri gastarbeiters in Russia. Azerbaijan’s original understanding of geopolitical dualism leads to such collisions.

Source: http://www.panarmenian.net/interviews/eng/?nid=90

[Armenian]

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

Putin Criticizes Top U.S. Officials on Missile Defense



Oct. 12 — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia sharply upbraided the visiting American secretaries of state and defense on Friday as little specific progress was made during negotiations intended to resolve growing disagreements over missile defense and other security issues. During a day of lengthy negotiations here, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates presented what they described as a series of “new ideas” intended to narrow the divide between the countries.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, concluded the unusual four-way meeting of Russian and American ministers of foreign affairs and defense by labeling the proposals constructive but insufficient. Mr. Lavrov explicitly called for the United States to freeze its plans for developing missile defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic while discussions continued on a compromise. But Ms. Rice made it clear it would not halt its efforts. The United States, Ms. Rice said, “is engaged in discussions, negotiations, with our allies, and those will continue.”

Although both sides agreed that their ministers of foreign affairs and defense would meet again in six months, the talks did little to dispel Russian concerns over American intentions on missile defense or to persuade the Kremlin to cancel its threat to suspend compliance with a treaty covering the array of conventional forces in Europe. Mr. Putin himself set the tone for the day when he kept Ms. Rice and Mr. Gates waiting 40 minutes for a morning meeting at his suburban residence, or dacha, and then surprised them with a derisive lecture in front of the television cameras. Mr. Putin described the American plan to build two components of a missile defense system in formerly communist nations of Central Europe as a reaction to a threat that had not yet materialized.

“Of course, we can some time in the future decide that some anti-missile defense should be established somewhere on the moon, but before we reach such an arrangement we will have a — we will lose an opportunity of fixing some particular arrangements between us,” Mr. Putin said

The new American proposals included an invitation for Russia to join the United States and NATO as a full partner in designing and operating an antimissile system guarding all of Europe. The offer even could include invitations for Russian and American officers to inspect — and even be stationed as liaison officers at — each other’s missile defense sites. This concept of a new “Joint Regional Missile Defense Architecture” was described by senior administration officials as the most advanced and elaborate proposal on missile defense cooperation between Washington and Moscow.

“We remain eager to be full and open partners with Russia on missile defense,” Mr. Gates said.

Acknowledging that the two sides also differed sharply on how to preserve the best aspects of treaties reducing nuclear warheads and guaranteeing verification, the American secretaries also proposed that the missile defense, conventional forces and nuclear arms issues be treated as “a strategic framework,” to be discussed in an organized, parallel manner.

Mr. Putin often veers from the diplomatic language typical of such high-level meetings. On Friday, meeting with the Americans at his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside of Moscow, the outwardly warm relations that once marked relations, at least between the countries’ leaders, had clearly chilled in public. Mr. Putin appeared to catch Mr. Gates and Ms. Rice off guard with his remarks since no public statements were planned in advance. Mr. Putin, though, arrived with notes and spent eight minutes welcoming the opportunity to talk about where Russia strongly disagreed with the Bush administration. Ms. Rice appeared angered, though Mr. Gates reacted impassively.

However, senior American officials said the private meeting with Mr. Putin was far warmer and productive than the public comments, in particular in discussions over American ideas for inviting Russian to join a regional missile defense system. In addition his remarks on missile defense, Mr. Putin suggested that Russia would withdraw from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, which barred short- and medium-range missiles from Europe, unless it were renegotiated and expanded to include other countries. Mr. Putin also suggested that the Bush administration was pressing ahead with its security plans in Eastern Europe at the expense of relations with Russia.

“We hope that in the process of such complex and multifaceted talks,” Mr. Putin said, referring to the format of Friday’s meetings, “you will not be forcing forward your relations with the Eastern European countries.”

A senior American official summarized the day’s efforts by saying the long-term goal of talks with the Russians remains “to create a virtuous cycle of cooperation.”

The two sides agreed to discuss a method for jointly monitoring and assessing the ballistic missile threat — taken to mean Iran — and to use that information to guide plans for antimissile systems in Europe that would benefit Russia, the United States and NATO. Mr. Gates described American plans to place 10 anti-missile interceptors in Poland and an advanced targeting radar system in the Czech Republic as no threat to Moscow’s nuclear missiles.

“I would just like to emphasize that the missile defense system proposed for Central Europe is not aimed at Russia,” Mr. Gates said. “It would have no impact on Russia’s strategic deterrent.”

Mr. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, insisted however that the American missile defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic were “a potential threat for us.” He threatened that if the two bases are completed, “We will have to take some measures to neutralize this threat.”

He did not elaborate, but Russian military officials have warned they would consider repositioning missiles to aim at Europe if American missile defense bases were installed in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/wo...russia.html?hp

[KarotheGreat]

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

Russia Threatens to Leave Missile Treaty

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened on Friday in talks with top US administration officials to abandon a key nuclear missile treaty, while also telling Washington to freeze plans for a European anti-missile shield.

Speaking at the start of talks with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and defence secretary Robert Gates, the Kremlin leader said the Cold War-era INF treaty limiting Russian and US shorter and medium range missiles was outmoded because other countries were acquiring such weapons.

“If we are unable to make such a goal of making this treaty universal, then it will be difficult for us to keep within the framework of such a treaty, especially when other countries do have such weapons systems,” Putin said.

Putin also urged the US delegation, which was in Moscow to address spiralling Russian-US tensions, “not to force” the planned deployment of an anti-missile system in new Nato members Poland and the Czech Republic.

Gates said that talks on Friday and Saturday were to tackle “an ambitious agenda for security issues that concern both of us, including the development of missile systems by others in the neighbourhood - I would say in particular Iran.”

Rice and Gates, who sat stern-faced through Putin’s opening remarks, later began talks with their Russian counterparts on a range of issues including US missile defense plans and Russia’s threatened withdrawal from another Cold War-era treaty, the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which limits the numbers of troops and tanks stationed in Europe.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/R...ow/2454108.cms

[Illuminator]

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

Majorly awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPdPKkZS6Pk

[skhara]

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

Here is something even more awesome. Talk about a military display:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL_ZgMqDv30&mode=related&search=

[Illuminator]

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

I love the Red Army Choir!