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Ear to the Ground

Putin and the New ‘Arms Race’

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Posted on Feb 8, 2008
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Vladimir Putin isn’t taking the expansion of NATO and a planned missile shield lightly. The Russian president told his people: “It is already clear that a new phase in the arms race is unfolding in the world. ... It is not our fault, because we did not start it.” Flush with oil money, Russia is planning to beef up and flaunt its military capabilities in response.


BBC:

In his speech, to the State Council - Russia’s top politicians, officials and generals - he said other countries were spending far more than Russia on new weapons.

But Russia would always respond to the challenges of a new arms race by developing more hi-tech weaponry, he said.

Referring to Nato’s activities in Central and Eastern Europe, Mr Putin said “there are many discussions on these, but… we have still not seen any real steps towards finding a compromise”.

“In effect, we are forced to retaliate, to take corresponding decisions. Russia has, and always will have, responses to these new challenges,” he said.

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By sophrosyne, February 11, 2008 at 5:54 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Yes, I stand corrected. Con-di claims to be a Soviet specialist, not a Russian specialist.  Trouble is, one cannot be a credible Soviet specialist unless one knows a tremndous amount about Russia’s complex history.  Con-di was an enabler of Bush’s horrid performance before and after 9-11 but is really almost moronic when it comes to knowing anything reliable about Russia or the Soviets.

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By jackpine savage, February 11, 2008 at 3:29 pm #

A few rather far fetched conspiracy theories suggest that what you mention was the goal all along.

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By Expat, February 11, 2008 at 12:32 am #

^ between you and yuriyatsin, these have been very informative.  I’m no expert, but your comment makes sense.  I’m very unhappy with my countries overall behavior in these things.

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By sophrosyne, February 10, 2008 at 7:30 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Good posts.  Yes, it is really hideous to see an empire like the USA in decline.  But that is when you start getting McCain-like characters to pull the wool over the eyes of those still convinced that America is in charge. 

Truth is, Bush backed off the fatuous Iran rhetoruic when Putin mentioned a special interest in iran.  Unlike iraq, which was a wretchedly weak country led by saddam who was just hanging on while he spun tales to earn respect, Putin has 9,000 nuclear warheads, many of which are pointed at Bush.  Bush is great murdering women and children in weak countries he has destabilizled and introduced terrorism into, but he is less strong facing an equal power.  Yes, whoever is elected will have to manage our decline and strike a strong alliance with Russia.  They are a more compelling power than America in the next 25 years.  They have a highly educated population a humble Obama or Hillary approach Putin quickly.

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By jackpine savage, February 10, 2008 at 1:30 pm #

Bolshoe spasibo, yuriyatin_dafodil.

I’ve waited a while to speak on this one.  Vladimir Putin is not the nicest guy in the world, but his press in the West does him no justice at all.

Keep in mind what he did in the KGB: he was an economic spy stationed in Germany.  He is one of those rare world leaders who does not need a translator to speak to many other leaders, being capable of reading the newspaper in German and English. 

He is also a professional.  Aided by Russia’s new found wealth from high oil prices, he’s maneuvered his country into the best possible position it could be in.  Especially, as yuriyatsin points out, considering the fact that since the Clinton administration NATO has been hemming Russia in to the best of its abilities.

The reason why he is so hated in the West is that he messed up the plan for global hegemony.  Russia was supposed to be reduced to a servile position, gutted and weak.  Where it counts, the Cold War never ended on the American side.  His ascent changed that.

I would call him a modern Peter the Great, a man who also used some unsavory (in our estimation) methods to modernize and Westernize Russia.  But the Russian people have a somewhat different ideal for their political leadership…which is too large a philosophical discussion for this venue.

We hear about how Putin “steals” elections, but even the Economist notes that he has no need to do so.  We heard about his rough treatment of Gary Kasparov, but those same sources never mentioned Kasparov’s role in a think tank with Rummy and Wolfowitz…nor that Kasparov’s statement on arrest was issued in English, not Russian.

I lived in Russia during the end of Yeltsin’s reign, and i can tell you all that life for the Russian people was mostly horrid and squalid.  I left after Putin rose to full power, but before the economic turnaround.  From what i can gather, he has improved life for many, many Russians.  People who’ve known real want and real political terror.

We blew it in the nineties.  We’re paying the price now, and will continue to pay the price.  As an aside, Ms. Rice is not an expert on Russia…she is an expert on the USSR, an entity that no longer exists.

Sorry for the long post, its mostly why i didn’t post early.  It’s hard not to go on and on when discussing your first true love.

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By Bonnie, February 10, 2008 at 10:03 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

AAAAAAAAmen!!!!  You are right on all counts!

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By Tony Wicher, February 10, 2008 at 5:12 am #

Please give us a year to get rid of this piece of shit we somehow put in office. I’m sure that you will find that a President Obama has no interest in re-starting the Cold War.

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By Expat, February 10, 2008 at 12:13 am #

^ a very long but interesting speech.  Thanks for the link.  I cannot and will not be an appologist for the ongoing stupidity and criminal behavior of my government.  It seems the powers to be won’t be happy until they have pissed off the entire world.  I no longer get my news from the MSM within the U.S. because they lie.

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By Leefeller, February 9, 2008 at 11:21 pm #

First of all you cannot say Condi Rice is not a good Secretary of State, simply because she is a women, next we can tout her experience.  So she is an expert on Russia?  Compared to Bush?  If all you do is want to go to war, what the hell do you have to be expert for?

Sorry all questions.  Let’s see we have been pissing on Russia ever since Bush has taken office. Now if Putin can read lying bush eyes so be it he is the only one.

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By DennisD, February 9, 2008 at 11:00 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

The Cold War is about to make a comeback. Just one of the many other “benefits” of the Iraq war for the MIC Bu$h Inc. failed to mention.

Bu$h is so far out of Putin’s class it isn’t funny. He’s watched us decimate our military and treasury to enrich our corporations, destroy our manufacturing base and economy and only had to wait 7 years to see it.

He left it to Bu$h Inc., his Neocon buddies and of course Congress to do what the old Soviet Union couldn’t do in previous 50 years. Brilliant Vladimir.

That must have been some look me in the eye he gave Bu$h although it wouldn’t take much to fool our fool. We have met the enemy and it is us.

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By sophrosyne, February 9, 2008 at 8:18 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Poor old and dishonest Condi Rice.  She claimed to be a Russian expert at Stanford and wowed the yahoos there.  Turned out she knows next to nothing about Russia and does not even speak Russian well.  She is surely one of the worst secretaries of state in history. But the worse fact is that the uSA is in decline.  Whoever is our next president will have to manage decline well. McCain, old, unstable and dangerous, still believes his rhetoric that he can revenge our humilation in Vietnam by fighting a 100 year war.  What he does not tell us is thta we are broke and cannot even afford to fight the wars we are now in.  USA is the joke of the world and gets weaker by the day.  If China pulls the plug on our debt, we are cooked.

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By yuriyatin_dafodil, February 9, 2008 at 7:44 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Read the entire speech, the above is significantly out of context. The entire Putin speech can be read here:

http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2008/02/08/1137_type82912type82913_159643.shtml

Furthermore VP adds that the Russian goverment have made all attempts to compromise, do not particularly want an arms race—would prefer to spend their finances on their people’s development, and on and on… however, if they are forced to defend themselves, then they will. Furthermore take a look what he has done for his people in the past 8 years—no wonder many other leaders are envious!!

And furthermore Russia has by far the most advanced biological warfare capabilities than even Europe and America (whose are not of the mickey mouse variety either) Google Ken Alibek, biopreparat, for a journey into biowarfare that will make your skin crawl..

Russia abides by its international treaties, NATO and America haven’t even bothered to sign them, let alone abide by them. And those they have signed, well… best we don’t go there, a sad sorry tale, indeed. President Bush said he trusted Vladimir Putin (saw his soul), and yet finds it necessary to distribute missiles around Russia’s territories, as if he is pushing up the ghosts of ‘cold war daisies’; which can only be interpreted as a direct threat to Russia’s sovereignty. How do you trust another leader, and then find it necessary to surround them with ICBMs etc? Wouldn’t it then, just be better to have said: No, we don’t trust him at all? Which of the two is it?

How would Americans feel if the Kremlin was planting ICBMS in every state in Canada, Cuba and Mexico, aimed at American cities? All while Putin told the world how he looked into George Bush’s eyes and saw his soul and trusts him?

Vladimir Putin is plausibly the most pro-west leader of Russia since who knows when, but that isn’t saying he is willing to sacrifice his own people and country to bend over backwards to please Western Capital dictators.

It means he simply expects to be treated as an equal, and to be granted the respect due to him and his nation, nothing more, nothing less. It means he is not going to stand by and allow his country to be raped and pillaged like it once was, if he can do anything about it. But on the other hand, his values also say, neither his nor Russia’s intentions are to go out and rape and pillage any other nation. Their aim is to be self-sufficient and to be a member of a family of nations. All they ask is the reciprocal respect, they deserve, and give.

That’s how I read the situation..

IF, I was the elected leader of any nation, in search of some kind of foreign enemy (for whatever reasons), Vladimir Putin would NOT be my choice, unless I had less brain-matter than common sense!

For many reasons, but I’ll state two glaringly obvious ones:

(a) You would be wasting your time, underestimating Vladimir Putin, big time: and what would be the need, it’s not like he actually represents some evil personification; why make someone an enemy, when he represents all that anyone could want in an exceptional friend?

(b) Anyone in real search of enemies, would easily be able to find a whole host of ready made ones, thanks to previous fixations on diverting attention away from important environmental etc issues: overpopulation, global warming, education in crisis, resource shortages, to name but a few….

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By Leefeller, February 9, 2008 at 6:02 pm #

Ike said it, Gravel said it, but we ignore reality and love to think of ourselves as some sort of super duper power.  Let the Military complex make arms for Russia and then we could take care of our crumbling nation. 

Will not work, the plans are to guild the lilly and pontificate how great a nation we are.

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By Criticalthinker, February 9, 2008 at 9:18 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

I love to see bad boys getting quiet.Its time to arm Syria,Jordan,Egypt,Hammas…with modern weapons and open peace conference for mideast.I guarantee succes.If not,let em fight as man against man,not like man(Jews)gainst baby(arabs).It is how the military power in the region looks like

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By Criticalthinker, February 9, 2008 at 9:02 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Finnaly,age of terror(by hegemony)can go into past.Russia and China can level the scale.US moral failure is unaxeptable.Lies,lies and more lies

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By Expat, February 9, 2008 at 8:15 am #

^ here we are ramping up the arms race again; only this time we are the ones with a weak economy.  We are after all oil consumers, not producers.  Talk about blowback/irony!  Russia might just be in a position to bankrupt us through a renewed arms race.  Oh, I forgot, we are already bankrupt.  Never mind.

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By Douglas Chalmers, February 9, 2008 at 7:54 am #

Quote: “Flush with oil money, Russia is planning to beef up and flaunt its military capabilities in response…”

No doubt that US intervention in the M.East has ramped up the price of oil. That has been of great benefit to Russia which sells oil to China, etc etc. They are quietly making billions whilst inflationary costs are killing the US economy.

In fact, one would wonder if the situation with Iran has been indirectly assisted by Russia to help this happen? Let’s just build a nuclear reactor or two for’em in a place called Bush-ehr….....

But having US anti-missile installations around its perimeter could also be of great benefit to anyone in Russia wanting to re-start an armamants manufacturing industry. Bush must be Putin’s best buddy then, uhh.

The only trouble is that these satellite states/imparialist puppets do tend to become rather self-willed after a while. Iran is now giving Russia a headache too….....

Russian alarm over Iranian missile test - February 6, 2008: http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2253321,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

No doubt this could lead to a face-off between Israel and Iran who are both posturing defiantly against each other to the pleasure of their governments in manipulating citizens’ fears. The problem for the USA is whether Pakistan can be relied on for much longer - or will Mushie still even be around…..

Israel “would not dare attack Iran” - Jan 17, 2008: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL1781409020080117 ...and also…
Iran unveils long-range missile - November 27, 2007: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2217756,00.html

So there we are - back to the M.East again as a place for proxy wars - but the USA could soon just as easily lose in this “balance of power” game, especially if you add this to the 200 Sukhoi stealth jet fighters Russia is supplying to Iran….... Russia will supply new anti-aircraft missiles for Iran - December 27, 2007: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2232272,00.html

· Advanced S-300 could hit US and Israeli fighter jets
· Air defence system ‘better than American version’

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