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FACTBOX: * The CFE pact limits the number of battle tanks, heavy artillery, combat aircraft and attack helicopters deployed and stored between the Atlantic and Russia's Ural mountains. * The original CFE Treaty was negotiated among the then-22 member states of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. At the time the treaty was signed in November 1990, a goal was to replace military confrontation with a new pattern of security relations. It also was to establish a secure and stable balance of conventional armed forces in Europe at lower levels than before. * The treaty came into force in 1992 and it has secured the reduction or destruction of about 60,000 pieces of equipment of types limited by the treaty since then. * It was complemented by "The Concluding Act of the Negotiation on Personnel Strength of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe" (CFE 1a) in July 1992. This agreement resulted in the substantial reduction of armed forces and since 2001, over 700,000 troops have been withdrawn. There are now less than 3 million troops in the area of application, with an authorized ceiling of more than 5.7 million. * It became and remains the cornerstone of security and stability in Europe, both in terms of the reduction of tensions relating to accumulated weapons through arms control at the regional level, and of greater stability through confidence building, transparency and information exchange. * It was updated in November 1999 in Istanbul with leaders of 30 nations setting limits on conventional forces on a national basis instead of the bloc-to-bloc totals set in the 1990 document. * The revised treaty, which gave sovereign states the sole right to consent to foreign forces on their soil up to set territorial limits, made it easier for NATO to enlarge into eastern Europe. * The updated treaty will come into force after ratification by all 30 signatory nations. Only Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine have ratified the revamped pact so far. * Russia has been anxious for the treaty to be ratified so that the ex-Soviet Baltic states can sign up. Some Russian officials fear they could become NATO outposts for nuclear arms or army bases. Sources: Reuters; U.S. State Department (www.state.gov)
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MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Thursday of imperialism and starting a new arms race, but Washington said its ex-Cold War foe's foreign policy showed it was behind the times.
Speaking a week before he meets leaders of the Group of Eight (G-8) industrial nations in Germany, Putin said Russia's tests on Tuesday of two new missiles were a direct response to U.S. moves to create a missile defense system in Europe.
"We are not the initiators of this new round of the arms race," Putin told a joint Kremlin news conference.
"There is no need to fear Russia's actions: they are not aggressive," he said. "They are a mere response to harsh and groundless unilateral actions by our partners and are aimed at maintaining the balance of forces in the world."
Putin's comments, which will be popular among ordinary Russians in a year when there is a parliamentary election, are the latest in a line of harsh outbursts against the West.
On Tuesday, Russia test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile with multiple warheads and a new cruise missile, which Russian generals say are sufficient to ensure the country's security for the next 40 years.
"Our partners are stuffing eastern Europe with new weapons," Putin said. "What are we supposed to do? We cannot just observe all this."
Moscow has been alarmed by U.S. plans to deploy parts of its global missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Washington says it wants to avert attacks from "rogue states" such as Iran but Russia sees a threat to its own security.
"There is a clear desire by some international players to dictate their will to everyone without adhering to international law," Putin said. "International law has been replaced by political reasons."
"In our opinion it is nothing different from diktat, nothing different from imperialism," he added.
RUSSIA FORCED TO DESIGN NEW MISSILES
Relations between Russia and the United States are strained by issues that also include U.S. concerns that human rights and democracy are backsliding in Russia.
Putin and Bush have a chance to discuss their countries' differences at talks in the United States on July 1-2.
But on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described the difficult relationship as a "mix of cooperation and competition, friendship and friction."
"But at times, Russia seems to think and act in the zero-sum terms of another era," she said in remarks prepared for a speech.
She said Russia's opposition to the missile shield was hard to understand. But Putin said Russia had to design new missiles after Washington quit the Cold War-era Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty in order to pursue the shield project.
"We have warned them then that we will come out with a response to maintain the strategic balance in the world," he said. "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."
In another move putting Russia at odds with the West, Putin has frozen Russia's commitments under the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) pact, which limits heavy weapons deployed between the Atlantic and the Urals mountains.
Russia blames NATO countries for failing to ratify the 1999 version of the treaty which took into account the collapse of the Soviet Union and the departure of its Warsaw Pact allies.
NATO believes Russia should first meets its commitment to withdraw military bases from ex-Soviet Georgia and Moldova.
"We say: ratify the treaty and start carrying it out or we will quit it for good," Putin said.
source: 31may2007
President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that tests of new Russian missiles were a response to the planned deployment of U.S. missile defense installations and other forces in Europe, suggesting Washington has triggered a new arms race.
In a clear reference to the United States, he harshly criticized "imperialism" in global affairs and warned that Russia will strengthen its military potential to maintain a global strategic balance.
"It wasn't us who initiated a new round of arms race," Putin said when asked about Russia's missile tests at a news conference after talks in the Kremlin with Greek President Karolos Papoulias.
Putin described Tuesday's tests of a new ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads and a new cruise missile as part of the Russian response to the planned deployment of new U.S. military bases and missile defense sites in ex-Soviet satellites in Central and Eastern Europe.
He assailed the United States and other NATO members for failing to ratify an amended version of the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which limits the deployment of heavy non-nuclear weapons around the continent.
"We have signed and ratified the CFE and are fully implementing it. We have pulled out all our heavy weapons from the European part of Russia to (locations) behind the Ural Mountains and cut our military by 300,000 men," Putin said.
"And what about our partners? They are filling Eastern Europe with new weapons. A new base in Bulgaria, another one in Romania, a (missile defense) site in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic," he said. "What we are supposed to do? We can't just sit back and look at that."
Putin and other Russian officials have repeatedly rejected U.S. assurances that the planned missile defense installations are meant to counter a potential threat from nations such as Iran and pose no danger to Russia.
Putin reaffirmed his warning that Russia would opt out of the CFE treaty altogether if NATO nations fail to ratify its amended version.
"Either you ratify the treaty and start observing it, or we will opt out of it," Putin said.
In remarks clearly directed against Washington, Putin blasted those "who want to dictate their will to all others regardless of international norms and law."
"It's dangerous and harmful," he added. "Norms of the international law were replaced with political expediency. We view it as diktat and imperialism."
Russia this week initiated an international conference to be held in Austria in early June to discuss the situation around the CFE treaty.
Putin described the tests of new missiles conducted by Russia on Tuesday as a necessary response to the Western action.
"There is no reason to fear these actions by Russia, they aren't aggressive. It's merely a response to tough and unfounded unilateral actions by our partners," he said. "These actions are aimed at preserving a global balance."
In one missile test Tuesday, a prototype of new Russia's intercontinental ballistic missile, called the RS-24, was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk launch site in northwestern Russia and its test warhead landed on target 3,400 miles away on the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, officials said. Russia's military also tested a new cruise missile based on the existing short-range Iskander missile.
"We will keep modernizing our potential," Putin said.
source: 31may2007
Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called for a moratorium by Russia of the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE), an agreement that removed a massive Red Army presence from Soviet and satellite states in 1990.
'I think it's reasonable to declare a moratorium on the fulfilling by Russia of this agreement. In any case, until all NATO countries without exception ratify it,' Putin said in his annual address to Russia's legislature, televised across the country.
The CFE limited NATO and the Soviet Union each to 20,000 tanks, 20,000 artillery pieces, 30,000 armoured combat vehicles, 6,800 combat aircraft and 2,000 attack helicopters between the Atlantic Ocean and the Ural Mountains.
Guy Roberts, NATO's deputy secretary general, told Interfax he hoped Putin's remarks were a suggestion, rather than an already-made decision. It was not clear if the moratorium had already been taken: Putin implored the legislature to back the moratorium, adding 'as I understand, it's already supported.'
Putin's speech came amid increasing Russian rhetoric against a planned US missile-defence shield, despite an emergency visit earlier this week by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates to invite Russia to join the project as a partner.
Washington says the shield is meant to minimize the threat of any possible Iranian or North Korean missile attacks, but Russian officials have said even after Gates' visit that Russia is its true target.
In response, Moscow says any planned missile-defence elements in the Czech Republic or Poland could become targets of Russian nuclear or conventional missiles.
The Russian leader called for European-wide dialogue about the plans at a summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), adding that he supported Kazakhstan's candidacy as chair of the organization.
Kazakhstan's bid to chair the OSCE has been met with skepticism from European members of the group, best known for its monitoring of elections. The OSCE sharply criticized Kazakh parliamentary and presidential elections in 2004 and 2005.
'In the greater plan, we're talking about a culture ... of international relations without imposing models of development or forcing a natural movement of the historical process,' especially in questions of democratization, the Russian president added.
Putin in his address said 'practically all types of heavy arms' had been moved from the European part of Russia and said the United States would not limit the number of troops on a certain part of its territory 'for such a reason.'
The 1990 agreement was signed after decades of a huge Red Army presence across Eastern Europe and was heralded as a landmark deal for removing tensions across the Iron Curtain.
An adapted version of the treaty was signed in 1999 to account for the break-up of the Soviet Union. Russia has ratified the document, but NATO member-states say they will not sign it until Russia removes troops from breakaway republics in Georgia and Moldova, as the so-called Istanbul commitments of 1999 stipulate.
Putin on Thursday called the Istanbul commitments, which had political rather than legal force, 'not legally connected' to the CFE.
Additionally, the formerly Soviet Baltic states that are now part of NATO have not ratified the document, which Putin said 'creates real dangers with unpredictable surprises.'
'What are they? What are our partners?' Putin said, adding that they 'at the minimum behave badly, trying to gain one-sided advantages.'
Russia has said it will put 5 trillion rubles (188 billion dollars) toward military equipment by 2015, including 31 ships, 50 strategic bombers, 50 Topol M rocket systems and possibly an aircraft carrier.
Putin on Thursday said Russia was 'only ... using its competitive advantages, as all states of the world do without exception.'
source: 31may2007
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