Russia suspends arms treaty

[justjohn]

Will this put Russian troops back on Polands borders ?


Russia's parliament has voted to suspend Moscow's support for a key treaty limiting the deployment of armed forces along its border with Europe.

Parliament's lower house, the Duma, unanimously agreed to temporarily abandon the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe treaty (CFE).

The bill still faces approval in the upper house in December before President Vladimir Putin can sign it.

The CFE is one of many issues recently putting Moscow at odds with the West.

The Duma approved the bill in the 418-0 vote.


THE CFE TREATY
Cornerstone of European security
Limits amount of key military equipment in designated area
Negotiated by Nato and ex-Warsaw Pact member states
Signed in 1990
Came into force in 1992
Revised 1999 version never ratified by Nato

In the motion, MPs said the CFE treaty "no longer responds to the security interests of the Russian Federation" in light of Nato expansion and other factors in Europe.

The vote amounted to legislative confirmation of a decree signed by President Putin in July.

The CFE was one of the most significant arms control agreements of the Cold War years.

It set strict limits on the number of conventional weapons - battle tanks, combat aircraft, heavy artillery - that the members of the Warsaw Pact and Nato could deploy in European territory stretching from the Atlantic coast to the Urals.

In the wake of the collapse of communism, the treaty was revised in 1999, in part to address Russian concerns.

Russia ratified the 1999 revised version, but Nato has not done so.

Nato states are first demanding the withdrawal of Russian forces from Georgia and Moldova, but Moscow says the issues are not linked.

The Kremlin has also voiced concern over US plans to station part of a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7082501.stm

Published: 2007/11/07 10:46:21 GMT

[justjohn]

Russia threatens short range missiles near Polish border

By DAILY TELEGRAPH

Published: November 15th, 2007

Russia threatened to site short-range nuclear missiles in a second location on the European Union's border yesterday if the United States refuses to abandon plans to erect a missile defence shield.

In what appeared to be a fresh attempt to divide the West, a senior army general said that Iskander missiles could be deployed in Belarus if US proposals to place 10 interceptor missiles and a radar in Poland and the Czech Republic go ahead.

“Any action meets a counter-action, and this is the case with elements of the US missile defence in Poland and the Czech Republic,” said Gen Vladimir Zaritsky, the chief of artillery and rocket forces for Russia’s ground troops.

In itself, the warning is unlikely to alarm Western governments. Nato brushed off the suggestion yesterday. “Any discussion of targeting Western Europe with missiles, from any party, is a) anachronistic; b) unwelcome and c) unhelpful,” said James Appathurai, a Nato spokesman in Brussels.

Russia, which insists that the missile shield is a plot to undermine its nuclear deterrents, has already said that Iskander missiles could be deployed in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, which lies in EU territory.

President Vladimir Putin has also threatened to retrain Russia’s nuclear arsenal on targets within Europe.

The creation of a second launch pad in Belarus, however, would allow Russia to place “tactical and psychological” pressure on neighbouring Poland, where public support for the proposed shield is low.

Analysts say that Mr Putin hopes to turn Europeans against the project by making it clear that they - rather than the Americans - would suffer the consequence of any nuclear confrontation.

Washington claims that the shield is aimed not at Russia but at states such as Iran which it accuses of seeking to develop nuclear weapons that could one day strike the West.

The United States has embarked on a charm offensive to win Mr Putin’s support. Senior American delegations visit Moscow regularly, while President George W Bush plied Mr Putin with lobster at an unprecedented summit in Kennebunkport, Maine, over the summer.

But Washington has shown little sign of accepting Russian proposals to relocate the shields and the Kremlin appears to be losing patience.

Mr Putin has already said that Russia could pull out of a Cold War treaty forbidding it from building intermediate-range nuclear missiles capable of hitting Europe.

The Iskander missile has a range of 190 miles, although a new version with a 310-mile range is due to enter production in 2009.

[justjohn]

Russia suspends arms control pact

President Vladimir Putin has signed a law which suspends Russia's participation in a treaty limiting military forces in Europe.

It follows its adoption earlier this month by the Russian parliament.

The Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, signed in 1990, limits the deployment of tanks, aircraft and other heavy conventional weapons.

Russia says the suspension is a reply to the non-ratification of the treaty by Nato countries.

The law will come into effect on 12 December, allowing Russia to boost its troop levels on its western and southern borders, although no imminent plans to this effect have been announced.

Nato members, led by the United States, have refused to ratify the CFE treaty until Moscow withdraws its troops from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia, as Russia had promised in 1999.
Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7120658.stm

Published: 2007/11/30 11:10:32 GMT

[Pawian]

Oops, I am afraid I will have to dig up an old but working heavy machine gun from under the concrete basement floor. My grandpa used it to repel bolsheviks in 1920 and left it to me afterwards.