BoyElroy
03-01-2006, 03:45 PM
Associated Press Worldstream
March 1, 2006 Wednesday 3:50 PM GMT
HEADLINE: Report: General says Russia considers pulling out of Cold War-era missile treaty
BYLINE: By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: MOSCOW
BODY:
A Russian general warned that Russia might consider opting out of a U.S.-Soviet arms treaty that scrapped intermediate range missiles, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted Gen. Vladimir Vasilenko, the head of the Defense Ministry's research institute, as saying that Russia could consider the redeployment of intermediate range missiles, which were scrapped under a landmark treaty signed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Intermediate-Range and Short-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, known as the INF Treaty, banned production and deployment of medium-range missiles, such as Soviet SS-20 and U.S. Pershing 2, and required that both nations dismantle them.
The missiles deployed in the early 1980s were capable of striking targets within the European continent and became a major destabilizing factor as they required shorter time to reach their targets compared with intercontinental ballistic missiles. The INF Treaty has become a key event that built mutual trust and helped end the Cold War.
Last March, Russia's Foreign Ministry pledges adherence to the treaty after media reports claimed that Moscow was considering a pullout from the agreement.
But Vasilenko was quoted by Nezavisimaya Gazeta as saying that now "the deployment of land-based intermediate range missiles could be considered as of the additional ways of ensuring national security."
The newspaper quoted Vasilenko as saying that while all Soviet intermediate range missiles were dismantled under the treaty, Russia still has the technology and production base to build them. It said Vasilenko's statement could be meant to test the public's reaction to the move.
Soaring global oil prices have brought Russia a steady flow of petrodollars, allowing the Kremlin to bolster defense spending in recent years after a decade of the post-Soviet money crunch.
Russia has been concerned over NATO's eastward expansion and criticized U.S. plans to deploy missile defense as damaging global stability.
President Vladimir Putin repeatedly boasted that Russia had designed a new weapon capable of penetrating any prospective missile defenses a clear reference to the prospective U.S. missile shield.
Military analysts said that the new weapon was a maneuverable nuclear warhead that could be fitted to both the new Topol-M land-based missile already being deployed and its prospective sea-based version, the Bulava.
Adm. Mikhail Zakharenko, a deputy navy chief, said that the development of the prospective Bulava missile for the Russian nuclear submarines had entered "the final stage," RIA Novosti reported.
He didn't say when exactly the missile would enter service.
LOAD-DATE: March 1, 2006
March 1, 2006 Wednesday 3:50 PM GMT
HEADLINE: Report: General says Russia considers pulling out of Cold War-era missile treaty
BYLINE: By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: MOSCOW
BODY:
A Russian general warned that Russia might consider opting out of a U.S.-Soviet arms treaty that scrapped intermediate range missiles, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted Gen. Vladimir Vasilenko, the head of the Defense Ministry's research institute, as saying that Russia could consider the redeployment of intermediate range missiles, which were scrapped under a landmark treaty signed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Intermediate-Range and Short-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, known as the INF Treaty, banned production and deployment of medium-range missiles, such as Soviet SS-20 and U.S. Pershing 2, and required that both nations dismantle them.
The missiles deployed in the early 1980s were capable of striking targets within the European continent and became a major destabilizing factor as they required shorter time to reach their targets compared with intercontinental ballistic missiles. The INF Treaty has become a key event that built mutual trust and helped end the Cold War.
Last March, Russia's Foreign Ministry pledges adherence to the treaty after media reports claimed that Moscow was considering a pullout from the agreement.
But Vasilenko was quoted by Nezavisimaya Gazeta as saying that now "the deployment of land-based intermediate range missiles could be considered as of the additional ways of ensuring national security."
The newspaper quoted Vasilenko as saying that while all Soviet intermediate range missiles were dismantled under the treaty, Russia still has the technology and production base to build them. It said Vasilenko's statement could be meant to test the public's reaction to the move.
Soaring global oil prices have brought Russia a steady flow of petrodollars, allowing the Kremlin to bolster defense spending in recent years after a decade of the post-Soviet money crunch.
Russia has been concerned over NATO's eastward expansion and criticized U.S. plans to deploy missile defense as damaging global stability.
President Vladimir Putin repeatedly boasted that Russia had designed a new weapon capable of penetrating any prospective missile defenses a clear reference to the prospective U.S. missile shield.
Military analysts said that the new weapon was a maneuverable nuclear warhead that could be fitted to both the new Topol-M land-based missile already being deployed and its prospective sea-based version, the Bulava.
Adm. Mikhail Zakharenko, a deputy navy chief, said that the development of the prospective Bulava missile for the Russian nuclear submarines had entered "the final stage," RIA Novosti reported.
He didn't say when exactly the missile would enter service.
LOAD-DATE: March 1, 2006