U.S. refusal to prolong START-1 fatal mistake

[December]

U.S. refusal to prolong START-1 fatal mistake - Russian experts


02/ 08/ 2007

http://img.rian.ru/images/7018/16/70181629.jpg



MOSCOW, August 2 (RIA Novosti) - A decision not to renew a major nuclear arms reduction treaty may have dire consequences for U.S. foreign policy and the entire world, Russian experts said Thursday.

The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) was signed by the United States and the Soviet Union on July 31, 1991, five months before the union collapsed, and remains in force between the U.S., Russia, and three other ex-Soviet states.

Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have since disposed of all their nuclear weapons or transferred them to Russia, and the U.S. and Russia have reduced the number of delivery vehicles to 1,600, with no more than 6,000 warheads. The treaty is set to expire on December 5, 2009.

General James E. Cartwright, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, said Wednesday that the refusal to prolong the START-1 Treaty would allow the United States to conduct quick and pinpointed strikes anywhere in the world, which is crucial for an effective fight against global terrorism.

"With such statements, the U.S. officials continue to promote their policy of forced global leadership," Sergei Markov, the head of the Institute of Political Research, a Kremlin-connected Moscow think tank, told RIA Novosti.

"All that we see today is that a global superpower is essentially ruled by extremists who commit catastrophic mistakes throwing the world into risky ventures," Markov said, adding that in the U.S. this group of radical extremists is represented by the so-called Neoconservatives, led by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Alexander Khramchikhin, an expert at the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, said the new initiatives proposed by the U.S. military were a logical continuation of the policies conducted by the current Washington administration.

"Frankly, it is a consistent U.S. policy [at present] to abandon all treaties that bind them by obligation to anyone," the expert said.

"It is difficult to predict the future of the START-1 treaty. The U.S. administration will probably be reshuffled soon," he said, adding that if a Democratic candidate became president the U.S. would "not continue destroying all [international] treaties."

Sergei Markov also agreed that changes in the future U.S. administration after the 2008 presidential election would dramatically transform U.S. foreign policy.

"It is clear today that the American people will reject the current policy and this group [of radical Neoconservatives] will retreat, 'licking their wounds,' to think tanks and newspaper and magazine offices," the expert said.


http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070802/70197039.html

[Truth_and_Power]

Are we the new USSR?

At the same time.. if we get nuked I could see punishing indescriminately. I have been thinking for a long time that the greatest tragedy the world could ever know is the US getting nuked. Anyone see an elephant get really pissed off before?

[December]

U.S. Senator Lugar speaks for extending START-I Treaty

28/ 08/ 2007

http://img.rian.ru/images/7530/24/75302498.jpg

MOSCOW, August 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and the U.S. should extend the START-I Treaty, which expires in 2009, or else negative consequences will result, U.S. senator Richard Lugar said Tuesday.

"The United States and Russia must extend the START Treaty's verification and transparency elements, which will expire in 2009," Lugar told an arms control round table in Moscow.

Lugar said the two countries should also introduce additional verification elements for the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) treaty.

The START-I Treaty was signed July 31, 1991 and expires December 5, 2009.

It remains in force as a treaty between the U.S., Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have since totally disarmed their strategic arms capabilities, and the U.S. and Russia reduced the number of delivery vehicles to 1,600, with no more than 6,000 warheads each.
"Disarmament is continuing, the Cold War is behind, and we still count arsenals by the thousands," he said.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20070828/75416225.html

[December]

Russian-U.S. talks on START-I to be held in Rome in Sept.

30/ 08/ 2007


TOKYO, August 30 (RIA Novosti) - Russian-U.S. talks on a replacement for the START-I arms reduction treaty will be held in early September in Rome, a high-ranking Russian Foreign Ministry disarmament official said Thursday.

"It's difficult to say yet what it will deliver. Talks are ongoing. We would like this to be a legally binding agreement which demonstrates our countries' commitment to nuclear disarmament, strengthening the predictability in our relationship and to reflect all the best and most efficient things that are in the current START treaty," Anatoly Antonov said on a visit to Japan.

The START-I Treaty was signed July 31, 1991 and expires December 5, 2009.

It remains in force as a treaty between the U.S., Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have since totally disarmed their strategic arms capabilities, and the U.S. and Russia has reduced the number of delivery vehicles to about 1,600, with no more than 6,000 warheads each.


"The United States and Russia must extend the START Treaty's verification and transparency elements, which will expire in 2009," Lugar told an arms control round table in Moscow.

Lugar said the two countries should also introduce additional verification elements for the SORT treaty.

READ MORE -

http://en.rian.ru/world/20070830/75785671.html


President Putin inspects Topol-M mobile ICBMs

http://img.rian.ru/images/5696/26/56962607.jpg

Land-based mobile strategic missile system Topol-M getting into position trategic missile division in the town of Teikovo, Ivanovo Region


http://img.rian.ru/images/5696/24/56962498.jpg

Sergei Ivanov, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, and Russian President Vladimir Putin (left to right) inspecting mobile Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile systems while on a visit to a division of the Strategic Missile Forces deployed in Teikovo, Ivanovo Region.

[heyjude]

Up until recently, the Russians have been content to step back from the world stage and let the US lead. Now they are rethinking that. Just as one party rule was bad for the country, one party rule is bad for the world.

All it took was for a few cocky bullys around Wash. DC thinking they have the right to destroy anyone, anywhere, if they didn't jump when told to. The American people know exactly how the Russians feel.

[Labrocca]

I would think the state department has it's hands full. Russia isn't the problem we need to be focusing on.

Besides this gives the next President an opportunity to build the bridges that Bush is burning.

[December]

I would think the state department has it's hands full. Russia isn't the problem we need to be focusing on.

Than how can you explain the actions of US government which refused to prolong START-1?

I can asure you that before he became a president Bush knew NOTHING about all these agreements...
He is doing what he is told to.


Besides this gives the next President an opportunity to build the bridges that Bush is burning.

The American president is not a REAL decision maker. The president is a temporary-four-years man which can be removed any time the Zionists want.

www.rense.com

[December]

Russia, U.S. to talk European missile defense in Moscow Oct. 12
05/ 10/ 2007


MOSCOW, October 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Foreign Ministry confirmed on Friday that top Russian and U.S. defense officials and diplomats would meet in Moscow on October 12-13 to continue discussions on missile defense in Central Europe.

"We are confirming the date for the meeting," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Russia strongly opposes Washington's plans, announced early this year, to place a missile interceptor base in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic considering them a threat to its national security. The United States says it needs better protection from rogue states like Iran and North Korea.

Russia's State Duma, lower house of parliament, passed a statement on Friday urging Warsaw and Prague to hold an inter-parliamentary conference on the U.S. missile shield plans.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071005/82602833.html

_____________________

www.rense.com

[December]

Missile tit-for-tat
12/ 11/ 2007

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Kislyakov) - It looks as if Russia has long guessed the American moves to create a missile defense system in Europe, and is responding tit-for-tat and even figure-for-figure.

On November 6, the Americans happily rejoiced after achieving their long-cherished ambition of hitting two target drones at the same time. The Russian reaction was not slow in coming. Russia is now poised to pull out of two basic international treaties on arms limitation.

On October 26, in an advance move, Col.-Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, said that Russia could quickly resume the production of short- and medium-range missiles if it was necessary and if there was a political decision.

"If there is a political decision to make such a class of missile, then it is obvious that they will be made in Russia in the near future because we have everything we need," he said, addressing a news briefing to mark the 15th anniversary of the Association of Missilemen Veterans, an interregional public organization.

As a complementary move, on November 7, Russia's State Duma unanimously voted for a moratorium on Russia's continued participation in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE).

READ MORE -

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20071112/87646945.html

http://www.khamenei.ir/Data/Media/Photo/86/07/24C/smpl.jpg

"Iranians have a fine image from Russians in mind" - Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei

http://www.leader.ir/langs/EN/index.php?p=news&id=3693


Russian President Meets the Leader
http://www.khamenei.ir/EN/News/detail.jsp?id=20071016C

[December]

Russia CFE moratorium to kick in on Dec. 12 - military chief
14/ 11/ 2007

BRUSSELS, November 14 (RIA Novosti) - A moratorium on Russia's Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty obligations will take effect on December 12, the chief of the Armed Forces General Staff said on Wednesday.

"There will be no changes to Russia's position: The law will come into force as it should, on December 12," Gen. Yury Baluyevsky said.
Russia has repeatedly urged its NATO colleagues to ratify the CFE Treaty and then amend it to eliminate flank limitations, he said.

Baluyevsky said last Thursday that Russia would no longer be bound by current weapons and equipment limitations after its moratorium on the CFE Treaty comes into force.

The State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, voted on November 7 in favor of President Putin's bill to impose a moratorium on the CFE Treaty.

The moratorium is set to come into effect after final approval by the upper house of parliament, expected to vote on the issue on November 16, and President Vladimir Putin.

The chief of the General Staff also said previously the CFE Treaty put Russia at a disadvantage.

"It was an onerous treaty for Russia. It was a treaty that Russia alone honored," he said.

Asked why Russia had signed the document in the first place, Baluyevsky said that at the time, in 1990, the goal was to avert a war, and the treaty effectively served its purpose.

He also said Russia's Armed Forces, like all militaries in the world, would be putting an emphasis on quality, not quantity.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071114/88118482.html

[December]

November 16, 2007, 18:09

Russia freezes key Weapons Treaty

Russia has symbolically withdrawn from a crucial arms treaty until European countries decide to ratify it. Russia’s upper house has approved the temporary suspension of the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty from December 12.

“We expect a reaction that will bring the arms control in Europe to order. It is possible only in the case of the CFE treaty coming into full force, and through modernisation of the regime that is hopelessly outdated. To continue to act within the present framework doesn’t make sense,” said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in his address to the Federation Council.

The major stumbling block is the adapted version of the treaty that was signed in Istanbul in 1999, and envisaged Russia’s withdrawal from Georgia and Moldova.

Russia hits back saying the link is not relevant.

“As for the attempts by our Western partners to link the ratification of the treaty to Moldova and Georgia, this is absolute politicisation of legal matters. Such a stance shows the reluctance of the West to restore the geopolitical balance in Europe. Russia fully abides by the so-called Istanbul commitments and believes that they should not be linked to the ratification of the adapted CFE Treaty. This is political, not legal,” said Lavrov.

READ MORE -

http://russiatoday.ru/news/news/17044

http://russiatoday.ru/media/news/3/473da41469f55.jpg