Posted on 04/26/2007 7:46:33 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
OSLO, Norway - Simmering tension between the U.S. and Russia over European missile defense boiled over Thursday at a meeting of NATO diplomats after President Vladimir Putin threatened to freeze Russia's compliance with an arms control treaty.
Hours after Putin and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice traded long-distance barbs on the growing divide between the former Cold War foes, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added to the fire in a lengthy diatribe against the United States and NATO.
Like Putin, Lavrov spoke of suspending participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, which regulates deployment of military aircraft, tanks and other non-nuclear weapons.
With language that recalled the Cold War, Lavrov accused the U.S. and its NATO allies of upsetting the security balance in Europe, creating new dividing lines and treating Russia as an enemy.
"We cannot be unconcerned by the fact that NATO military infrastructure is creeping up to our borders," Lavrov said after a NATO-Russia Council meeting. "They are still looking for an enemy."
Rice dismissed Russian concerns over Washington's plans to deploy anti-missile defenses in Europe as "purely ludicrous."
"Let's be real about this and realistic about this," Rice said, referring to Russia's belief that the installation of American interceptors in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic would pose a threat to its nuclear arsenal.
"The idea that somehow 10 interceptors and a few radars in Eastern Europe are going to threaten the Soviet strategic deterrent is purely ludicrous and everybody knows it," she told reporters before the NATO talks and a side meeting with Lavrov.
"The Russians have thousands of warheads," said Rice, who plans to visit Moscow next month to press the case for missile defense.
Rice urged the Russians to abandon Cold War-era thinking about the proposed system and accept U.S. offers to cooperate in combatting new threats, notably from Iran and North Korea.
Washington says the deployment will protect Europe and North America but Moscow argues there's no immediate threat and claims the U.S. is trying to target Russia's strategic missile arsenal.
As Rice spoke, Putin was delivering his annual state of the nation address in which he called for suspending Russia's compliance with the 1990 treaty. He cited NATO nations' refusal to ratify an updated version of the agreement and linked it to the U.S. missile defense plan.
"Our partners are behaving incorrectly, to say the least," Putin said in Moscow. "I consider it worthwhile to declare a moratorium until all NATO countries ratify." He threatened to pull out of the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty altogether if progress is not made.
The United States and other NATO members have refused to ratify an updated version of the treaty until Moscow abides by a commitment to withdraw troops from the ex-Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia.
Rice's reaction to Putin's statement was terse.
"These are treaty obligations, and everyone is expected to live up to treaty obligations," Rice said.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said NATO allies met Putin's message with "grave concern, disappointment and regret."
Two senior U.S. officials who attended the private NATO-Russia Council meeting, said Lavrov presented a list of complaints about the alliance and Washington's missile defense plans.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were describing details of a closed meeting, said the reaction to Lavrov's 10-minute remarks was universally negative. They described the meeting as stormy.
The allies expressed support for a dialogue on missile defense and U.S. offers to cooperate with Russia and also grave concern about Moscow's decision on the treaty, the officials said. They said Lavrov indicated that any attempt to discuss unfulfilled Russian commitments on troop withdrawals from Georgia and Moldova would crater the discussions.
Putin's message and the debate over missile defense dominated the first of two days of talks among NATO foreign ministers. A flurry of high-level talks in recent weeks has failed to soften Russia's public opposition to the proposed extension of a U.S. anti-missile shield to Europe.
Diplomats said the 26 NATO allies closed ranks in the face of Lavrov's criticism, but Russia's rhetoric has unnerved some European allies who fear the negative impact on relations with the Kremlin may outweigh the any benefits of the missile shield.
___
Associated Press Writer Paul Ames contributed to this report.
LOL!
Lot of truth to that.
"Soviet"?
If you’re that keen on the Nazis, you must be delighted that Estonia has decided to remove the Bronze Soldier. Yet, if I recall correctly, you were jolly miffed of them for doing precisely that.
Strange...
If you’re that keen on the Nazis, you must be delighted that Estonia has decided to remove the Bronze Soldier. ==
You tottaly missed my point. War did happen and created her heros so th emonumenst should stand. But I regret that that war happened. Hitler could win the war if he went with help to Russians and fought ONLY Bolshevicks. But he fought Russians and alienated them.
Actually I was wondering where the russians would forward deploy forces. Being that they no longer possess or control the former soviet bloc states.
Russia is not a NATO member, so WTF are they even doing there?
I don't. Got a link?
Only one side? The treaty was ratified by Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. You seem to think these are all one country. That's why people call you "Soviets." If it quacks like a duck...
Fine Putin ... let's do that ... and let's see who's the firstest with the mostest when the iron flies.
How do you say, “I didn’t mean to irritate you; give me a kiss,” in Russian?
RusIvan didn’t think it was all that clever (see posts 12 and 32). ~S
Oops! I mean # 11 and 32!
This is exactly what hitler attempted to do. The Russians responded with by killing their own and killing any of their conquered who refused to fight the nazis with them. Go back to your old war films, the nazis made numerous attempts to try and convince the Russians that they were their liberators and not conquerors. Ivan would have none of it and trained their commissars to murder any who refused to fight.
The stalinists were every bit as brutal and evil as the nazis. The only choice a Russian of that day had was whether to die by Russian bullets or German bullets.
Even if so, are you saying that this was a treaty between "Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus"?
You are perfectly capable to find it.
Russia clearly does not respect the sovereignty of those ex-soviet nations and has no intention of following Russia’s own laws and fulfilling their treaty commitments.
I think you made it up.
Communists don't quit, even after defeat, they keep on going. When the Wall came down, after Yeltsin and the Soviet break up, I said to myself, "it is not over yet". If Ronald Regan would have been around now, he would have agreed with me.
This is another festering problem we have and a Democrat majority just gives the enemy more fire for their furnace. If we don't get some courage and stand up to the rest of the world we are bound in chains to live in slavery. And I won't do that.
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