Posted on 04/27/2006 5:42:57 PM PDT by blam
'Russia has left the western orbit'
Missile deals with the 'axis of evil' are just the latest sign that Moscow is sick of kowtowing to the US and Europe, writes Tom Parfitt
Thursday April 27, 2006
Moscow could be on the verge of clinching an arms deal with Syria or Iran that would send the US and Israel into pop-eyed rage. A few days ago a Russian arms manufacturer let slip at an arms fair in Kuala Lumpur that his state-run weapons design bureau was close to sealing a foreign sale of Iskander-E missiles. The destination of the hardware was secret, he said, but the most obvious market is clear: the Middle East.
Last year, Israel was furious when it emerged that Moscow was planning to sell the Iskander to Damascus. The Iskander is like the Scuds that Iraq used during the Gulf war but many times more accurate and better equipped to avoid defensive weapons such as the Patriot missile. Syria - part of George Bush's "axis of evil" - would love to be able to trundle some of these short-range ballistic missiles (range: 180 miles) down to its southern border to point at Israel in the event of a conflict.
No doubt the Iranian regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also itching to get its hands on some of these weapons - whose sale is not restricted by any treaty. Earlier this month Iran tested an underwater missile that looked suspiciously like a Russian Shkval.
President Vladimir Putin, under pressure from the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was forced to step in and reverse the Syrian missile deal. These days, one might surmise, he would not give a fig.
Everything about Russia's stance in the international arena suggests a new confidence that radiates "don't bully me".
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
ping
I am an equal opportunity basher. Rice is certainly less pathetic than the clueless Strobe Talbott, Bill Clinton's Russian expert, who in his book called the feckless Clinton a "Russian Hand".
Since when KGB agents care about children? They have rather long record of killing or suppressing them and their families. Beside it was not Russian children but Ossetian so even nationalism would not work here.
The Iskander is like the Scuds that Iraq used during the Gulf war but many times more accurate and better equipped to avoid defensive weapons such as the Patriot missile.==
Iskander has ability to fly non ballistic trajectory and even change target in flight.
Extend NATO right up to Russia's own damn doorstep. Put missile bases in Ukraine and Estonia. **** the Russians.==
Putin understand your plan. So Russia began her own plan of counter-balance just to build new type of missiles the "country busters" - one per NATO country and name it the "Warsaw", "Tallin" and so on. Each missile carries 100MT(!) warhead. Russia has that technology, just recall the Khruschev "kuskina" mother.
100MT explosion will surely just wipe clean off whole small country. And what is important to build just the missile is much cheaper then to build the missile base. So Russia will counter-balance NATO cheaply.
SO Putin will just make NATO ridicluous because absolutely impossible for those countries to survive at any conflict with Russia. They will be sure "sheeps for slaughter". Hence the those countries will understand that thier security under NATO will be equal to nil. Hence the sense of NATO will be destroyed.
Then I presume Putin may just tell those countries: "Quit NATO and we desmantle this "country buster" dedicated to your country". Interesting what they will do then?
Russia and "Palestine" are good examples of what happens when several generations in a geographic area are subjected to systematic purges for any deviation from the line of the central authority, or just for the hell of it. It's not a pretty picture.
All thrown out for public consumption my friend...while, they grease up, getting into the right positions to STICK it to you...
And all along Bush feeds the chinese manufacturing machine hundreds of billions of FRN so the demand for oil in China is so great that it allows Russia to rise from the ashes and get in this position.
Er... Russia never WAS in the western orbit. Ever!
The Soviet premiers of Russia.. not in western orbit.
The Tsars of Russia.. not in western orbit.
The Tatar Khans of Russia... not in western orbit.
Now, what makes you think that the Ex-KGB Presidents of Russia are ANY different from their predecessors from a thousand years?
Well put.
Sounds perfect to me -- there is virtually no public attention on the Russian genocide and mass destruction of Chechnya, and the more attention focused on the Middle East, the better. It's a get out of Hell free card for Russia, as they are selling to both a secular Baathist regime in Syria and to the mullahcracy of Iran.
Russia is a failed society and makes very little worth a damn besides weapons.
The American President working through Marc Rich plundered the strategic stock piles of aluminum and titanium.
They can sell some oil but that does not provide jobs.
Putin is using what he has to do what he can to make ends meet.
Meanwhile......Russia is dieing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.