Russia Cancels Joint Exercises With US

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 9-6-2006 | Mike Eckel

[blam]

Russia Cancels Joint Exercises With U.S.

Wednesday September 6, 2006 3:01 AM

By MIKE ECKEL

Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia said Tuesday it was pulling out of joint military exercises with the United States scheduled for later this month because of unspecified problems with U.S. personnel.

A Defense Ministry statement announcing the decision to cancel the Torgau-2006 exercises suggested it was connected to a dispute between NATO and countries participating in the NATO ``Partnership for Peace'' program.

``We are aware of media reports and will work through appropriate channels to determine the status of future military exercises,'' Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday.

The Russian statement said the cancellation was related to ``unresolved questions connected with the status of foreign military personnel arriving on the territory of the Russian Federation.''

The ministry said the exercises could be held at later date once an agreement is reached between NATO member countries and participants in ``Partnership for Peace.''

Partnership for Peace is a watered-down NATO program of cooperation between the alliance and former Soviet militaries.

Russia has watched with growing concern as NATO has expanded to include former Soviet bloc nations such as the three Baltic states, Poland, and Hungary. Moscow's relations with Washington have cooled noticeably in recent months.

[Gay State Conservative]

Russia is not our friend.Never has been,never will be.

[samadams2000]

Heard on the grapevine their submarines wouldnt have the screen doors secured in time.

[Parmy]

Good. That way they won't know everything that we have. I have never seen the logic or reasoning for this kind of detante with an obvious enemy.

[DoughtyOne]

I have thought that Russia should still be thought of in the "trust but verify" model proposed by Reagan. I will say though, that it does no good to completely ignore Putin either.

I would like to seem a dialogue between Bush and Putin. Mutual summits would help toward that end.

How would we like it if Russia were moving it's block back into Cuba and Central and South America? We woudn't like it. I don't necessarily blame them for not liking the expanding NATO.

Summits might help to ease this. Face to face relations go a long ways to alleviating tensions. You begin to know people better.

I know what you're saying, but I don't think we're doing enough to keep good relations with Russia going, and that doesn't mean that I think we should capitulate on something major we want to do. It's just how you do things that really matters in most instances.

[Gay State Conservative]

Heard on the grapevine their submarines wouldnt have the screen doors secured in time.

This isn't funny.Russia is capable of making,and seems to be inclined to make,trouble for the West in a thousand different ways.

For example,is there *any* doubt at all that Russia wants Iran to get nukes? Is there *any* doubt that Russia helped N. Korea to get nukes?

[Anticommie]

Russia Cancels Joint Exercises With US

Second part of the statement is missing, the original line reads:

Russia Cancels Joint Exercises With US in order to conduct Joint Exercises with Iran.

[GarySpFc]

This was only one of the scheduled excercises America has with Russia this year.

[gafusa]

Which is worrisome. We will never fight alongside Russia, doing joint exercises accomplishes nothing except revealing our capabilities to them. We need to stop engaging Russia, it has no point, gives them intel, and wastes resources, we should be spending our time in joint excises with India or Japan instead. Russia will never be our friend, and always our enemy. Ie. in Iran nuke crisis.

[GarySpFc]

Yes, we have our differences with the Russians. However, you are wrong about us fighting along side the Russians. Have you forgotten Afghanistan? Did you realize Russian furnished us overflight rights and still does to our bases in the Stans? Did you know the Russians furnished us with supplies, tanks, and Russian tank crews for the Northen Alliance? I could go on, but that would get into areas in the WOT which are classified.

Furthermore, there have been joint military excercises with the Russians in 2004 and 2005 on Russian soil, and there will be more. I know there is a Special Forces operation scheduled for later this year near Moscow. These excercises are needed, and they build relationships. However, everything is vanilla, and none of the sneaky stuff is revealed.

[ChinaThreat]

Keep your friends close...and your enemies closer.

[wildcatf4f3]

putin doin the hummer on mohamed

[Thunder90]

THe Chicoms also get a seat at it...

[GarySpFc]

China has never been a member of the Torgau military exercises, nor were they scheduled to be a member this time.

[gafusa]

We have more than just differences with Russia. Russia is the primary source of weapons for the Iraqi terrorists, amongst just about every other terrorist group. Russia is the arsenal of terror. Moreover Russia's motive for helping in Afghanistan was it was for their own benefit, so would have done it regardless of whether or not we did exercises with them. I am not advocating ceasing all ties, but Russia acts out of self interest, if you want them for anything you just have to appeal to that, friendly ties will serve you little to no good. Moreover I still maintain, although I am no expert on these things, that our engagement with Russia is a colossal waste of resources. Considering the amount of time and money we put into them, we get little return, and outright hostility on issues such as Iran and Iraq. We have limited amounts of resources, sending them to Russia is probably not the best choice, we would be better served focusing elsewhere, especially considering ceasing joint exercises and the like would probably not even effect our relationship at all, and may actually make it better, as it would be based on realism, rather than a farce of friendliness. Plus the Russians certainly use the exercises for intelligence regardless of their nature, although I guess the converse also applies, as we surely exploit them for this purpose. But those are just my opinions. I would like to hear your views on them.

[gafusa]

Well yes, sort of. You keep a good eye on them , but not too close, it is better to keep them at arms length so they can not stab you in the back. And as Sun Tzu posits, you only do it solely for your benefit and as short a amount of time as possible, when you can, when they have been weakened by your farce friendship, you crush them. You keep your friends close, but do not overly rely on them, and your enemies dead.

[M. Espinola]

Maybe the Russians would feel far more comfortable holding war games with their good comrades, the Iranians, or the Syrians?

[Sergei_DV]

When Russians waged war with islamists in Afghanistan and Chechnya, USA blamed them, and helped to their enemies. USA together with NATO bombed Russian brothers in confession Serbs for they fight with islamists. When Russia starts big war with Iran, all Western world quickly turns out best Iranian friend and ally, as they where some time ago. It is a mousetrap for Russia.