Putin declares new nuclear weapons project

**Ray** · 18 Oct 07,, 17:56

Putin declares new nuclear weapons project

Rosalind Ryan and agencies
Thursday October 18, 2007

President Vladimir Putin said today that Russia is developing new types of nuclear weapons.

Mr Putin said during a live televised phone-in that the new missiles were part of a "grandiose" plan to boost Russian defences, Reuters reported.

"We will develop missile technology including completely new strategic [nuclear] complexes," he said in the annual phone-in, in which Russians can question him directly.

Mr Putin began the session by extolling the strength of the Russian economy, particularly the improvements since he assumed office, but warned that inflation could rise to 8.5% by the end of the year.

he annual televised Q&A session is Mr Putin's sixth since being elected president in 2000. More than 1 million people sent in questions by email, text or telephone.

Many viewers were keen to see if Mr Putin would give any clues as to his plans when his second presidential term expires in 2008. Under the terms of the constitution he cannot be elected for a third term.

Mr Putin did not reveal his intentions and focused instead on economic growth, which he said has been fuelled by a construction boom.

"It's unlikely that we will succeed in keeping inflation in the planned framework," he said. "It's planned that it will be around 8.5%."

He also said work on the new missiles was "continuing successfully".

"We have plans that are not only big, but grandiose; they are fully realistic," he said. "Our armed forces will be more compact but more effective and better ensure Russia defence."

Critics have claimed that the annual phone-in is choreographed tightly and that Mr Putin answers only safe, pre-selected questions.

Traditionally questions have involved bread-and-butter issues such as water supply, school places and healthcare. The Kremlin said that this year's questions included queries on salaries for public sector workers, the environment and the 2014 Winter Olympics.

While President Putin is keen to connect with voters using the phone-in, the Russian prime minister, Viktor Zubkov, is not so enthusiastic about allowing television an insight into the workings of government.

Mr Zubkov banned the live broadcast of cabinet meetings today, saying that television cameras were preventing proper discussion.

The televised sessions were the brainchild of previous prime minister Mikhail Fradkov.

Putin unveils new nuclear weapons project | Russia | Guardian Unlimited

Now read it with this:

Chill cast on U.S.-Russia relations

Bush says Putin was 'wily' at their last meeting. Foreign policy and governing style are at the heart of the split.

By James Gerstenzang, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 18, 2007
WASHINGTON -- President Bush, who delivered a sanguine assessment of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin shortly after taking office, presented a decidedly different view of his Kremlin counterpart Wednesday.

"He was wily. He wouldn't tip his hand," Bush said of his most recent encounter with Putin.

The president was referring to Putin's refusal during their meeting last month in Australia to reveal the contenders to succeed him at the Kremlin. The Russian president's second term ends next spring.

Bush's comments at a White House news conference reflected the cooling that has marked the U.S.-Russian relationship in recent months. The two countries have diverged over U.S. concerns about the Kremlin's commitment to democracy and over foreign policy differences, notably toward Iran.

The president also used his news conference in the press briefing room to pressure the Democratic congressional leadership to speed action on appropriations bills and other measures central to Bush's domestic agenda.

Suggesting that he was not optimistic about Russia's political course, Bush said, "In terms of whether or not it's possible to reprogram the kind of basic Russian DNA, which is a centralized authority, that's hard to do."

But he said he and the Russian president, who visited Tehran this week, continue to agree that "it's not in the world's interest for Iran to have the capacity to make a nuclear weapon."

In Tehran on Tuesday, Putin defended Iran's right to develop a civilian nuclear power program, a statement that contrasted sharply with the Bush administration's expectation that he would take a harder line toward Tehran's uranium enrichment ambitions.

Bush, who said after his initial meeting with Putin in 2001 that he had looked into his eyes "and I was able to get a sense of his soul," chuckled when told that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had said at a presidential campaign stop that when he himself looked into Putin's eyes, he "saw three things: a K and a G and a B." Putin had been a KGB agent in the Soviet years.

"Pretty good line," Bush said, with a smile.

For the second consecutive news conference, Bush was adamant in his refusal to discuss what has been reported as an Israeli air attack on a site in Syria believed to have been part of a nuclear development program.

At times defensive, at times taking an aggressive approach toward the Democratic leadership of the House and Senate, Bush chastised Congress for failing to send him 12 overdue appropriations measures. He also pressed it to approve four trade pacts and renew his centerpiece education program.

Even as he criticized what he said was the lack of progress on Capitol Hill, the president said that "we're finding common ground on Iraq."

Bush said he believed "the debate has shifted" in the wake of congressional testimony last month by Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. military officer there. Both said that American troops this year had allowed Iraq to make some progress.

The president's fresh attacks on Congress suggest that he is building a case against the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, feeding on public opinion polls that show declining support for the legislative branch.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) called Bush's attack "partisan" and an example of "the president claiming to seek common ground at the same time he is bitterly attacking Congress."

james.gerstenzang @latimes.com

Things are slowly returning to the Cold War days.

Putin has also got into a 'security arrangement' with Iran and Caspian States against foreign aggression as also has indicated that all countries have the right to develop nuclear energy. The timing and the intent is surely aimed at the US.

Turkey, on the other hand, is making short shrift of US advice not to ingress into Kurd areas of Iraq.

This doesnot portend towards world peace!

**Ray** · 18 Oct 07,, 18:01

One wonders why this should be offered at this belated stage, when a firm stand had been taken earlier.

Such procrastination and vacillation does not indicate political will and that can have serious repercussion to the projection as the only superpower.

US offers Putin deal over missile shield

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and James Blitz and Stephen Fidler in Brussels

Published: October 17 2007 20:58 | Last updated: October 18 2007 02:31

The US has told Russia it would be willing to delay switching on a missile defence system in Europe until both sides agree there was a threat from Iran, according to US officials.

Robert Gates, US defence secretary, and Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, made the offer to Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, in an attempt to allay Russian concerns about the Pentagon’s plan to place 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic.

A senior US defence official said Washington would continue negotiating with Poland and the Czech Republic towards building the missile defence installations. But he said the US was willing to leave the system switched off until the US and Russia had jointly validated that Iranian ballistic missiles posed a threat.

“It is our intention to proceed with the construction of missile defence in Europe,” said Geoff Morrell, Pentagon spokesman. “But the pace at which it becomes operational could be adjusted to meet the threat.”

The US wants to develop a missile defence shield in Europe to counter the future potential threat from Iranian long-range ballistic missiles, which US intelligence estimates could target Europe and the US by 2015. Russia believes Iran is much further away from developing missiles with that range.

The US hopes to convince Russia that its evaluation of the Iranian threat is inaccurate. Officials point out that Iran tends to deploy missiles much sooner after their initial flight tests than Russia, which they believe has lulled Moscow into a false sense of security.

In Moscow last weekend, the US and Russia agreed to work together to establish the criteria needed to measure Iranian capabilities. But at a joint press conference, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said the process would reaffirm its belief that Iran does not pose an imminent threat.

The US made several proposals on missile defence in Moscow which Mr Lavrov said were interesting. But he stressed that Russia was adamantly opposed to placing the shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, which suggests that compromise will be difficult to reach.

The US hopes the proposal would also encourage Mr Putin, who visited Tehran for the first time this week, to persuade Iran to halt its uranium enrichment programme. The US made clear it was also concerned about Iranian chemical and biological weapons that could be delivered on long-range missiles.

Mr Putin said again this week that Russia did not take the view that Iran was seeking to build a nuclear weapon. The US said the threat posed by Tehran’s nuclear and missiles programme is the main reason to build a Europe-based missile defence system.

President George W. Bush said of Iran on Wednesday: “If you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”

Dan Fried, US assistant secretary of state for Europe, in Brussels said the most immediate threat from Iran disappeared then there would be less urgency for such a defence system.

The US also presented Moscow officials with a new proposal on how Russia, the US and European nations could share early-warning information in a way that would, US officials said, diminish the missile threat to them all.

The proposal is to combine information from Russian radars in Azerbaijan and in southern Russia with information from ship-based radars and from US detectors in the Czech Republic, the UK and elsewhere. Interfax news agency quoting Yuri Baluyevsky, Russian chief of staff, said there was “nothing novel” in the proposals.

US officials said the sharing of early-warning information would still leave decisions on whether to fire missile interceptors with respective national capitals. They said while the Russians gave no ground on their earlier objections to the system, they did agree to study the proposal.

Russia has conditioned any co-operation on the US stopping talks with Poland and the Czech Republic. It has also put forward its own proposal to integrate the Garbala radar in Azerbaijan into the US missile defence system instead of the Czech radar. But the US says the radars are different types, and says Garbala can only complement, not replace, the X-band tracking radar in the Czech Republic.

Meanwhile, Ali Larijani, Iran’s top security official, on Wednesday told state TV that Mr Putin had given Iranian authorities a “special idea” which was “being looked into”. He refused to give details.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Mr Putin, declined to confirm whether a new proposal had been made.

Other people familiar with the Tehran talks suggested they had provided the Russian president with an opportunity to deliver the message that Iran had to comply with demands to suspend uranium enrichment.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
FT.com / World - US offers Putin deal over missile shield

**~~Feanor~~** · 18 Oct 07,, 21:46

There was an article on newsru.com earlier where the Russian general staff commented that the missile shield deal offered nothing new in terms of options. That's basically a polite no.