Russia wants to continue nuclear cooperation, Putin tells new Iranian leader

Moscow, 25 June: Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a message of congratulations to Mahmud Ahmadinezhad, who has won the presidential election in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Russian president's press service said today.

"I am confident that now that you have been elected [president] as a result of the Iranian people expressing their will, continuity in the development of long-term multi-faceted partnership and cooperation between our states will be secured," the message says.

"These relations have been developing vigorously of late. The volume of trade has for the first time exceeded 2bn dollars. The construction of the nuclear power plant in Bushehr is nearing completion, and we are ready to continue cooperation with Iran in the nuclear power engineering sector, taking into account our international obligations in the nonproliferation sphere, and to promote the search for a mutually acceptable political solution to the existing problems. There are good prospects for the development of bilateral collaboration in the spheres of oil and gas, traditional power engineering, transport, telecommunications and civil aviation.

I am convinced that the course towards a comprehensive expansion and deepening of good-neighbour relations on the basis of equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit meets the fundamental interests of our nations, and serves the cause of safeguarding international peace and stability.

"Hopefully we still have hundreds of nukes aimed at Russia."

And it is time for honest information (all of it) for our own. Let's find out a little more about history related to occurrences like the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX FASCISM AFTER GLASNOST
Paul D. Steeves, Stetson University
presented to the Conference on Faith and History, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 8 October 1994.

Excerpt:

Rather I analyse here a reactionary element within the Russian Orthodox church that contributed to the nationalist electoral victory. I intend to unfold the religious component of the mix that produced the unanticipated antireform results of the elections. Because this force continues as an important component of the Russian political situation, I contend that understanding this phenomenon may prepare us to comprehend what comes out of Russia in the future.

Russia says ready to hit terrorist bases abroad
25 Jun 2005 11:05:43 GMT
Source: Reuters

MOSCOW, June 25 (Reuters) - Russia is prepared to use warplanes to destroy terrorist bases abroad, Air Force commander Vladimir Mikhailov was quoted as saying on Saturday. "As for terrorists and our fighter jets, if we have high-precision weapons and know the whereabouts of a terrorist gang, why not smash it, even if it's outside Russia?" Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Russia, which strongly opposed U.S.-led attacks on Iraq in 2003, has battled rebels in the Muslim province of Chechnya for over a decade. Moscow says Chechen rebels receive support and funding from international extremist organisations.

Mikhailov, on a visit to the Volga region town of Engels, said Russia's need to strike terrorist bases abroad was linked to aspects of U.S. foreign policy, but did not go into details.

Russia threatened pre-emptive strikes on rebel bases anywhere in the world after Chechen separatists took a school hostage in the town of Beslan in September 2004. More than 300 people, half of them children, died in the siege.

Moscow has not specified where it thought these bases were, but has repeatedly accused Georgia of allowing Chechen rebels to operate from the Pankisi Gorge which borders Chechnya.

Critics are sceptical about Russia's threats, pointing to its crumbling armed forces, which have not recovered from a post-Soviet slump due to what analysts say are ineffective fund allocation systems and endemic embezzlement.

Mikhailov himself said in January that Russian fighter pilots got paid so little that it pained him to talk to them.

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