Posted on 04/27/2007 2:39:10 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Putin threatens Russian pull-out from landmark arms treaty
by Nick Coleman
Thu Apr 26, 12:19 PM ET
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday threatened Russian withdrawal from a landmark Cold War-era arms treaty in a heightening of tensions over a planned US missile defence system in Europe.
In response to Putin's threat, the NATO military alliance reaffirmed its commitment to the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has meanwhile rebuffed Russian criticism of Washington's missile defence plans as "ludicrous."
And Czech President Vaclav Klaus, whose country is set to host part of system, flew to Moscow on a visit mainly aimed at calming the missile defence row.
Making his last state of the nation speech in Moscow, Putin said Russia could pull out of the 1990 CFE treaty until all of NATO's current members ratified it.
"It would be appropriate to announce a moratorium on Russian adherence ... until it has been ratified by all NATO countries without exception," Putin said.
Putin said Washington was exploiting difficulties with the CFE to expand missile defence facilities into central Europe.
"Our partners are conducting themselves inappropriately to say the least," he said.
"They are using the complicated situation to expand military bases near our borders. Moreover they plan to locate elements of a missile defence system in the Czech Republic and Poland."
The CFE treaty was signed in 1990 by the countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the former Warsaw Pact to limit military hardware in the region.
It was adapted in Istanbul in 1999 following the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, in order to limit deployments on a country-by-country basis.
But NATO states have refused to ratify the new pact on the grounds that Moscow has failed to honour commitments made in Istanbul to withdraw Russian forces from the ex-Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldova.
Putin's insistence that all countries ratify the CFE appeared particularly aimed at the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which were once part of the Soviet Union and are not part of the treaty.
Putin insisted there was no connection between ratification and the issue of Russian troops in Georgia and Moldova, which he said Moscow was working to resolve anyway.
An unnamed Kremlin official was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that Russia wanted Western countries to ratify the revised treaty within a year.
Ahead of a NATO-Russia meeting in Oslo, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier voiced concern at the tensions -- reflecting Berlin's ties with both Washington and Moscow.
"It's important to prevent a spiral of mistrust between Russia and the United States," Steinmeier said.
But speaking to reporters in Oslo, Rice was sharply critical of Russia's stance on Washington's missile defence plans, which involve placing a radar system in Poland and interceptor rockets in the Czech Republic.
Washington says the missile shield is not aimed against Russia but intended to protect against countries such as Iran and North Korea.
"The idea that somehow 10 interceptors and a few radars in eastern Europe are going to threaten the Soviet strategic return is clearly ludicrous and everybody knows it," Rice said.
"The idea that somehow you can stop the Russian strategic nuclear deterrent with a few interceptors just doesn't make sense," she said.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance remained committed to ratifying the adapted CFE treaty but said that the issue of Russian troops in Georgia and Moldova remained a hurdle.
The testy rhetoric reflected increasing tensions over NATO's enlargement into territory once part of the former Soviet Union and Washington's championing of countries such as ex-Soviet Georgia.
Arriving in Moscow on a four-day visit, the Czech president told ITAR-TASS news agency that Russia had been been kept fully informed of the missile defence plans and that they posed no threat.
He also told Kommersant newspaper there was little chance of Prague pulling out of negotiations with Washington on Czech involvement.
"The Czech Republic has started negotiations on deployment of a radar and I don't see them being revised," he said.
Really? Do you have links for this?
What do you think about the interceptors that surround Moscow?
What do you think about the interceptors that surround Moscow?==
Old and monstrous. Needed to be exchanged.
On the polar route America is putting the interceptors too(Alaska and Greenland).
Really? Do you have links for this? ==
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Missile_Defense Search for “Alaska”
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