Surely.
” . . .Iranian membership of the SCO would pose an enormous headache for the United States. Like Nato, its treaty states that an attack on one member is regarded as an attack on all, raising the prospect that the United States could find itself aligned against both Russia and China if it invaded Iran.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/17/content_6554223.htm
Urgent: Russia resumes deploying strategic planes
www.chinaview.cn 2007-08-17 21:40:26
MOSCOW, August 17 (Xinhua) — Russia was resuming flights of its strategic aviation on permanent basis from Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.
“Four strategic missile carriers, support planes, and tanker aircraft took off from seven Russian airfields in various parts of the country at 00:00, Moscow time, (2000 GMT Thursday) on August 17. Combat duty has begun,” Putin was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
Editor: Sun Yunlong
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/17/wputin117.xml
Putin praises strength of ‘Warsaw Pact 2’
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Last Updated: 1:21pm BST 17/08/2007 (excerpted)
President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, will attend an unprecedented show of joint military force today amid fears that the Russian leader is trying to turn an increasingly powerful central Asian alliance into a second Warsaw Pact.
The United States will be anxiously watching the military manoeuvres - held under the auspices of the six-member Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) - from afar after its request to send observers was rejected.
Washington has plenty of reasons to be uneasy. Founded in 2001, the SCO, which includes the four central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as China and Russia, is rapidly gaining a reputation as an anti-Western organisation.
That image seems to be one that Mr Putin is happy to cultivate. Analysts say that the Russian president believes the organisation is emerging as a bloc that is rapidly becoming powerful enough to stand up to the West.
Russia’s most pro-government newspapers, often used by the Kremlin as propaganda vehicles, yesterday proclaimed the arrival of an “anti-Nato” alliance and a “Warsaw Pact 2”. At the annual SCO summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek yesterday, Mr Putin praised the alliance’s growing strength. “Year after year the SCO becomes a more significant factor in strengthening security and stability in the central Asian region,” he said. . .
Yet the SCO has wider ambitions. Pakistan, India and Mongolia all want to join - as does Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, attended the summit as guest of honour, a title bound to rile Washington. Iranian membership of the SCO would pose an enormous headache for the United States. Like Nato, its treaty states that an attack on one member is regarded as an attack on all, raising the prospect that the United States could find itself aligned against both Russia and China if it invaded Iran. Yet, for all Mr Putin’s posturing, most analysts believe that an underlying antagonism between the member states means that the SCO is far from cohesive, a charge that reduces its chances to be effective.
Thrown together for the moment by mutual expediency, Russia and China have historically distrusted each other. Beijing, which plays host to the Olympic Games next summer, has much less interest in antagonising the United States and would almost certainly block Iran’s accession to the club.
Similarly, the central Asian nations are wary of the two regional superpowers - although, for the time being, the tolerance of Beijing and Moscow for their autocratic ways is more attractive than the demands to democratise made by the United States.
Even so, today’s exercises will serve as a reminder that the global balance of power is shifting.
For the first time ever, China is deploying troops, tanks and aircraft on a combined mission abroad. . .
Thank you callmejoe.
The Cold War seems to be getting hotter.
Thanks for all the Russian info Joe. Your research is greatly appreciated.
http://itn.co.uk/news/1f23c3a77f7d0f641a9903e235bc84f7.html
Russian bombers fly over North Sea
Updated 11.56 Fri Jul 20 2007 (excerpted)
RAF fighter planes have been scrambled to monitor two Russian bombers that flew unusually long sorties. The Tu-95 bombers stayed in international air space during the flight on Thursday morning and they flew close to the North Sea oil area, where British businesses operate. “It’s a long time since Russian bombers have been that far south” - John Inge Oegland.
Norway also scrambled fighter jets as the bombers passed between Aberdeen and Stavanger. John Inge Oegland, spokesman for Norway’s armed forces, said: “It’s a long time since Russian bombers have been that far south. I would say that is rather unusual. “Since they were so far south, the RAF followed the same procedure and went up to identify them.” The incident was the latest of several sorties in recent days . . .
Mr Oegland also revealed Norway scrambled fighters on Thursday to follow two Tu-160 Russian bombers, a more modern jet-engine strategic bomber than the propeller-driven Tu-90, which passed near Norwegian air space in the Barents Sea. The Tu-160s flew west into the Atlantic, where they were met by two tankers for air-to-air refuelling, before heading back to Russia.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/10/content_6506746.htm
U.S. detects Russian aircraft during exercise
www.chinaview.cn 2007-08-10 10:33:29
WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) — U.S. military detected two Russian aircraft flying toward a U.S. naval exercise in the Pacific Ocean, Pentagon said on Thursday.
The aircraft, two TU-95 Bear strategic bombers, were detected on Wednesday as they were approaching the exercise site in waters off Guam, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Commander Chito Peppler said.
However, no air-to-air interception ensued since the Russian aircraft didn’t get close enough to Guam, where the U.S forces were engaged in a naval exercise involving about 30 naval vessels and over 20,000 U.S. military personnel, the spokesman added.
Russia said a long-range Russian bomber flew over a U.S. military base on Guam, a claim denied by Pentagon.
Editor: Song Shutao
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2281387,prtpage-1.cms
Russian nuclear bombers hold exercises over North Pole
14 Aug 2007, 1939 hrs IST,AFP (excerpted)
MOSCOW: Russian strategic bombers on Tuesday began five days of exercises over the North Pole, marking the latest in a series of displays of Moscow’s military muscle. The nuclear-capable bombers will practice firing cruise missiles, navigation in the polar region and aerial refuelling manoeuvres, the Russian air force said in a statement.
The exercises come barely a week after Russian strategic Tu-95 bombers flew over the Pacific to within a few hundred kilometres (miles) of the US military base on the island of Guam - and, according to a Russian general, exchanged grins with US fighter pilots sent to intercept. They also follow recent attempts by Moscow to bolster Russia’s territorial claims in the Arctic region. . .
About 20 Russian aircraft will take part in the polar exercises: TU-95s (Tupolevs) a long-range strategic bomber; TU-22s, the strategic supersonic bomber most used by Russia; and Il-78s (Ilyushins), a four-engine aerial refuelling aircraft.
Russian bomb flights spark ‘grave’ fears
Luke Harding and Ewen Macaskill
August 19, 2007 (excerpted)
RUSSIA has resumed long-range flights of strategic bombers capable of striking targets deep inside the United States with nuclear weapons. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had restarted the Soviet-era practice of sending bomber aircraft on regular patrols beyond its borders. Speaking after Russian and Chinese forces completed a day of war games in Russia’s Urals, Mr Putin said 14 Russian bombers had taken off simultaneously yesterday on long-range missions. “We have decided to restore flights by Russian strategic bombers on a permanent basis,” he said. “Russia stopped this practice in 1992. Unfortunately not everybody followed suit. This creates a strategic risk for Russia … we hope our partners show understanding towards the resumption of Russian air patrols.”
Analysts described Russia’s move as a “grave development”. They said Mr Putin appeared to have unilaterally abrogated an agreement with the US and Britain signed in 1991 not to engage in long-range nuclear bomber flights. Russia’s then president, Boris Yeltsin, and the former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, signed the agreement with the then US president, George Bush snr. All sides agreed to reduce their strategic rocket forces and to stop long-range bomber flights.
“This is a very grave development that threatens the US with nuclear weapons. It means that Russian bombers will be ready to attack the US at a moment’s notice, just like in the Cold War,” said Pavel Felgenhauer, a leading Moscow-based defence analyst. Mr Felgenhauer said the bombers would be deployed in positions north of Britain over the North Pole, from where they would be able to fly across the Pacific or Atlantic to attack US targets. He said there was a real risk that bombers equipped with nuclear warheads might crash. “These flights are very dangerous. The planes are old and the maintenance is patchy. Crews are not always as best prepared as in the Cold War. A crash with nuclear weapons is very possible,” he said. . .