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.
No, you do not think so.
I searched and found no evidence of such an agreement. I wouldn’t ask you for a link otherwise. I have no reason in the world to believe anything you say. I think the existence of such an agreement is highly doubtful. If you could prove you didn’t make it up, you would.
Or maybe I am lazy? Or pessimistic that you will be persuaded?
I searched and found no evidence of such an agreement.
Please, don't you remember how the 1999 NATO campaign against Serbia ended? And that Russians were mediating?
Look up Viktor Chernomyrdin, June 1999.
Putty Put Putin is not our buddy, he’s a communist, pure and simple. ==
Then he the first “communist” billioneer.
if Hilter convinced Russian population that he came to free them from bolshevicks then he won that war. With Russians (not Stalin and Soviets!) on his side he would definetely won.
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.==
He tried to do that in 1943 it was too late the soviet propaganda made him a monster and turned the war in the “Great patriotic war”. But if he did that in 1941. If he formed the new divisions from Russians. He might get at least 2 mln army. If it got on the front line then whole soviet army knew that and surrendered. No commissars prevented that.
OK I agree with you that he tried something. And I know that many Russians fought on his side. But Stalin gathered 15 mlns army plus the western front plus th western supplies and Germany lost.
I spoke in person with some people who was under occupation of German troops. They said that German troopers did nothing wrong to them or thier relatives and neibors. Even helped them sometimes. Some woman told me that she was young at the time and german soldier gave her a sugar and chocolade. I red real numbers that the Russian peasants under 2 year occupation made the unbelievable harvest of wheat twice. It was enough to feed them and big chunk of German population in Germany.
So I really do not believe into the official numbers of soviet civilian casualties under Germans. I beleive now that Soviets just wrote off on Germans thier own misdoings and crimes.
Yes I agree that war crimes happened during war and it was the brutal war and Germans started it. BUT.. I hope we will learn the lesson. It is no way Russia and Germany again to war against each other.
And if pigs had wings they could fly. Hitler fought Russians for the same reason he fought everyone else- he viewed Russians as an inferior people wasting space that could be better filled with Germans.
Thank you for your detailed reply. I like to hear from people who are much closer to the source and do appreciate your insite.
In the west we have an overly simplistic view of the war and tend to generalize and gloss over certain realities. We tend to quickly forget and underappriate the sacifices made by others for numerous reasons, but that is how it is here. We’ve embraced ignorance, in a sense.
I pray your two nations never do go to war again. Our present beef with Russia is over Iran. How this plays out will dramatically effect our two nation’s future relations.
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