Posted on 05/05/2009 2:40:07 PM PDT by nickcarraway
May 5th, 2009 - 3:12 pm EST By Sindh Today | Category: UnCat, World
Moscow, May 5 (DPA) Russia is to expel the head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s information office from Moscow, a report said Tuesday, in a sign of a continued deterioration of the country’s relations with the Western military alliance.
Diplomat Isabelle Francois and a NATO colleague are expected to be told formally to leave Russia Wednesday morning, the Interfax news agency said, citing a source in the Russian foreign ministry.
This follows last week’s expulsion by NATO of two Russian diplomats for spying. NATO also accused Moscow of destabilising the South Caucasus. Russia for its part alleged that NATO members were sabotaging East-West relations.
Earlier Tuesday in protest at upcoming NATO military exercises in Georgia, Russia cancelled its participation in a NATO-Russia Council meeting in Brussels May 18-19.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov considers that such talks, against the background of tension over the Georgia exercises, would be inappropriate, Russia’s ambassador to NATO, Dmitri Rogozin, was quoted as saying by Interfax.
Russia has accused NATO of raising tensions in the region with its military exercises which are to begin May 6 and last for almost a month. Moscow has called the exercises in the former Soviet republic “open provocation”.
A NATO official confirmed to the DPA that Lavrov had pulled out of the meeting.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer “regrets this decision, because this ministerial meeting would have been a good opportunity to discuss issues of mutual concern”, the official said.
De Hoop Scheffer “hopes that they will find a good date in the near future” for a meeting.
Without Russia’s participation, the entire meeting, which would have seen Lavrov and the foreign ministers of NATO’s 28 member states sitting at the same table, is cancelled, the official said.
NATO has repeatedly accused Russia of violating the territorial integrity of Georgia - which is hoping to join the Western alliance - and of building up a strong military presence in the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
For its part Russia resents what it regards as NATO encroachment on its sphere of influence.
Associated Foreign Press (AFP) ^ | April 2, 2009 | Anna Smolchenko
"Russia's Dmitry Medvedev hailed Barack Obama as "my new comrade" Thursday after their first face-to-face talks"
Posted on Friday, April 03, 2009 8:10:15 AM EDT by ETL:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2221410/posts
By MARTIN SIEFF, UPI Senior News Analyst
Published: March 26, 2009
WASHINGTON, March 26 (UPI) -- The continuing tensions over Russia's refusal to sell its state-of-the-art land warfare advanced weapons systems to China hasn't interrupted the rhythm of major joint military exercises between the two major land powers on the Eurasian landmass. The latest in the regular, biennial series of exercises between the two nations has been confirmed for this summer.
The next in the now well-established series of exercises called Peace Mission 2009 will be carried out in northeastern China, the Russian Defense Ministry announced March 18, according to a report carried by the RIA Novosti news agency.
The first bilateral Peace Mission maneuvers -- described at the time as counter-terrorism exercises -- were held in Russia and the eastern Chinese province of Shandong in August 2005. As we reported at that time, they were a lot bigger than mere counter-terrorism exercises. Warships, squadrons of combat aircraft and more than 10,000 troops were involved carrying out landings against hypothetically hostile shores. The maneuvers also involved large-scale paratroops drops. The scale and nature of those exercises suggested a trial run for a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan with Russian support. ..."
http://www.upi.com/Security_Industry/2009/03/26/Russia_China_plan_new_joint_military_exercises/UPI-25021238094858/
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From the Sino-Russian Joint Statement of April 23, 1997:
"The two sides [China and Russia] shall, in the spirit of partnership, strive to promote the multipolarization of the world and the establishment of a new international order."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HI29Ag01.html
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From National Public Radio (NPR):
August 29, 2006
"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been visiting countries such as China, Iran and Russia as part of an effort to build a 'strategic alliance' of interests not beholden to the United States. He considers the United States his arch enemy.":
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5729764
Putin is laughing his ass off at the good fortune to have a marxist quisling as his opponent pretending to be president of the US
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