Putin issues sharp warning to US, vows to counter 'imperialism'

AFP on Yahoo ^ | 5/31/07 | AFP

[NormsRevenge]

MOSCOW (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin issued an acerbic warning Thursday to the United States, saying the recent test of a new Russian missile was a direct response to US actions and condemning "imperialism" in world affairs.

"Our American partners have quit the ABM Treaty," Putin told reporters after meeting his Greek counterpart, referring to the landmark 1972 US-Soviet treaty limiting the missile defenses of the Cold War superpower foes.

"We warned them then that we would come out with a response to maintain the strategic balance in the world. Yesterday we conducted a test of a new strategic ballistic missile with multiple warheads, and of a new cruise missile, and will continue to improve our resources."

The United States informed Russia in 2001 that it was exercising its option to withdraw unilaterally from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) pact. It has since stepped up controversial plans, fiercely opposed by Russia, to deploy a missile defence shield in eastern Europe.

Putin warned Wednesday that the US missile defense plan would turn Europe into a "powder keg" and he repeated on Thursday previous assertions that the planned deployments would ignite a new Cold War-style arms buildup.

"We are not the initiators of this new round of the arms race," Putin said.

The Russian president's comments came a week before he meets US President George W. Bush and other leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations at a summit in Germany.

He is also scheduled to hold one-on-one talks with Bush in the United States at the beginning of July.

In a thinly disguised attack on US foreign policy in recent years, Putin warned there had been attempts by actors -- he did not name any country or bloc explicitly -- in international affairs to impose their will on others.

"In our view, it is nothing other than diktat, than imperialism," the Russian leader stated.

"Problems have arisen because the world changed and there was an attempt to make it unipolar. There was a desire among several international actors to dictate their will to each and everyone and to act not in accordance with the norms of international life and law," Putin said.

He added: "This is very dangerous and unhealthy. The norms of international law have been altered for political expediency. What is this political expediency and who defines it?"

Tensions between Russia and the United States have risen dramatically in the past year amid sharpening differences over the US missile plans, the state of democracy in Russia and concerns over energy supplies.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repeated on Wednesday the US assertion that the planned missile defense system in eastern Europe poses no threat to Russia and that Moscow's concern over it is "ludicrous."

Her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, countered at a meeting of G8 foreign ministers outside Berlin that "there is nothing ludicrous about this issue because the arms race is starting again."

[wearearepublic]

Miz Pelosi, Don't you think it's time to send barney frank over to calm Mr. Putin down?

[EGPWS]

could you imagine if patton lived and ran with lemay...

Our arsenal would have a much higher percentage of tanks and strategic bombers for one surely. ; )

[EGPWS]

Miz Pelosi, Don't you think it's time to send barney frank over to calm Mr. Putin down?

I can just imagine her reaction to your statement if presented to her personally.

"No! I wanna go, I wanna go, I wanna go!"

[wearearepublic]

Fortunate only if it happens before we (the USA) PC ourselves to death.

You make it sound as if pc'ing ourselves to death is future tense. I, sir, would submit to you that it would better be stated as past tense.

[Obadiah]

You have hit upon a very, very important point that many of us here have been wringing our hands over for the past couple of years.

I of course voted for George W. Bush in both elections, but I am both appalled and aghast at the fact that this administration has not done nearly enough to lead in the area of public perception for foreign and domestic affairs.

The President has recently been in public giving speeches, but it may be too little too late. Where has President Bush been for the past two years? I remember when presidents used to address the nation with some regularity. When is the last time the President Bush addressed the nation?

It is frustrating that the President has allowed his critics unchallenged command the public platform and that he has not used the bully pulpit for nary any advantage. In that regard it seems he has wasted much of his political capital and appears destined to run out the clock for the next 18 or so months. It ought not be that way.

[Inwoodian]

I thought Russia was broke and couldn’t evev pay their military. Seems a little economic imperialism is in order.

[EGPWS]

You make it sound as if pc'ing ourselves to death is future tense. I, sir, would submit to you that it would better be stated as past tense.

I can't lie, for we aren't dead yet....

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Bombs away with Curtis Lemay.

[Alberta's Child]

I'm going to cut Putin a little slack here, because I suspect there is far more to this than meets the eye.

If you want a real eye-opener, do an internet search on the background of a group called the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus (they used to be called the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, and I suspect they changed the name when they started to get some unfavorable attention after the Beslan massacre). ACPC has actually sided with the Chechen separatists against the Russian government, and the group's membership list includes a bunch of familiar names from various positions of influence in and out of the U.S. government over the last 10-15 years.

Elliott Abrams
Kenneth Adelman
Bulent Ali-Reza
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Eliot Cohen
Midge Decter
Geraldine A. Ferraro
Frank Gaffney
Richard Gere
Douglas Ginsburg
Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
Robert Kagan
Max M. Kampelman
Thomas Kean
William Kristol
Michael A. Ledeen
Robert McFarlane
William Odom
P.J. O'Rourke
Richard Perle
Richard Pipes
Norman Podhoretz
Stephen J. Solarz
George Weigel
Caspar Weinberger
R. James Woolsey

[Alberta's Child]

It's the fact that the USA is absolutely anti-imperialist that has you foaming at the mouth.

I'm not so sure about that. See #29.

[Riodacat]

I guess I don't get it.
Putin is obviously doing what he thinks is in HIS country's best interest - not ours and that's the way it should be.
We would be very fortunate to have politicians which do things which are in OUR best interest --- unfortunately that's not the case.
BTW, in WW2 we didn't save their bacon. It's probably fair to say that by destroying the best and bulk of the German army, they saved US hundreds of thousands of casualties.

[TChris]

AFAICS, the majority of the names on that list are unrepentant Leftists/Socialists. It’s hardly fair for Putin to come down hard on the GWB White House for the activities of a meddlesome group of has-beens, if that’s what he’s doing.

[Rembrandt_fan]

You wrote, “... and to think we saved their bacon in WW2.”

While no closet Stalinist, I think I’m safe in making the claim that Soviet Russians bore the brunt of German military might in WWII to the tune of 30 million civilian and military casualties. If anything, Field Marshal Zhukov’s ‘Always Attack’ dictum kept the heat off the Western Front, saving countless Allied lives. Your statement has no historical validity. The Russians are not the French.

Insofar as Putin’s aggressive, anti-American agitprop is concerned, Putin knows that even the finished American missile defense shield is not intended to ward off an all-out ICBM strike by a first-rate (or even second-rate) military power. He’s making nationalistic noise to divert the Russian people from a corrupt, increasingly authoritarian domestic policy. Another Russian journalist thrown from a balcony or shot in the head? Kasparov and other anti-Putin activists thrown in jail? Rattle the saber at the Americans.

[NormsRevenge]

hmmmm..

Without our intervention and support in the European theater, are you both of the belief that an unfettered Germany would have eventually been defeated by the Soviet regime and European forces?

If we had chosen not to provide the British and the Soviets with supplies and military assistance via a push from the other end of the European continent, would you still be of the opinion that the Soviets and the allies would have still prevailed?

Interesting. Thanks for your comments.

[vbmoneyspender]

Does the missile shield violate the ABM treaty?

Which ABM treaty? The one we withdrew from?

[SF Republican]

Thanks

[Riodacat]

"..... are you both of the belief that an unfettered Germany would have eventually been defeated by the Soviet regime and European forces?

Absolutely.. Stalingrad was the turing point for the war with Germany.
Without our "supplies" and involvement, they would likely have suffered another million casualties and the war in Europe would have taken another year or 2, but Russia would have sacrificed another 20 or 50 million if that is what it would taken to beat Germany.
Germany was beaten before the allies hit the beaches in Normandy - it was only a question of time.

[Paul Ross]

It's the fact that the USA is absolutely anti-imperialist that has you foaming at the mouth. The idea that the US would dare to curtail Russia's imperialism by helping smaller countries defend themselves is simply maddening to you, isn't it? ...Pootie?

Agreed. You nail him.

And our worthless State Dept. doesn't call his fulminations...and saber-rattling... for what they are...an attempt at totalitarian intimidation and bullying of free republics.

[Paul Ross]

With the exception of Perle, a singularly distinguished and impressive list of “members”. How do we join up?

[NormsRevenge]

I’ll meet ya halfway, how’s that, which is what the Soviet forces did. ;-)

Operation Barbarossa wasn’t exactly a stellar success either.

I just find it incredibly strange that the US is once again and always has been seen as the enemy by those very people whose rights to exist we also fought and sacrificed so many good men and women for.