Russia Seeks Review Of Landmark Arms Control Pact

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Photo courtesy AFP.

Russia says no return to Cold War arms race
Moscow (AFP) May 23 A return to a Cold War-style arms race is out of the question, a top Russian official said Wednesday, despite what Moscow describes as hostile US military deployments planned for central Europe. First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told a televised news conference that a new US missile defence system was clearly aimed at Russia, but that arms spending in Russia would remain a tiny fraction of its Soviet-era peak. "There will be no return to an arms race, at least from the Russian Federation," Ivanov said. Russia's military budget "remains as it was: 2.6, 2.8, 2.9 percent of GDP. In the Soviet Union it was 30 percent." "Of course you can't talk about a return to the Cold War. It's a different time. Russia is not the Soviet Union." Ivanov, widely seen as a possible successor to President Vladimir Putin in elections next year, said the US radar planned for deployment in the Czech Republic "will monitor the airspace to the Urals" in central Russia. "The explanation that elements of the air-defence system may be used against North Korea or Iran cannot be defended on a serious level," he said. Ivanov scorned the idea of Russia joining the United States in the project. "We are not going to cooperate against ourselves," he said.

by Staff Writers
Vienna (AFP) May 23, 2007
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Wednesday called for an emergency meeting to review an arms control deal aimed at establishing defence parity between the US and several European countries. His call to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin's statement that a US plan to build a missile defence system in eastern Europe could launch a new arms race.

"It will lead to nothing else than a new arms race and we find this completely counter-productive," Putin, who is also in Vienna, said.

Putin has announced a moratorium on the application of the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, saying the 26-member North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) comprising the US and European countries, did not repect it.

Lavrov asked the Vienna-based OSCE to convene a special session to re-examine the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, or CFE, signed in Paris in 1990 by NATO member states and former European communist nations, Western diplomatic sources said.

The treaty entered into force in 1992 and aimed at reducing forces and armaments of members of the two blocs who were enemies during the Cold War.

It also provides for confidence-building measures and reciprocal inspections.

But after the break-up of the Soviet Union, the treaty was amended in Istanbul in 1999. Russia ratified the new version but NATO member states refused to do so, putting forth a precondition that Moscow totalLY evacuate troops from the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldavia.

Lavrov on Wednesday rejected anew this demand and denounced Washington's plan to expand its missile defence shield in eastern Europe to thwart potential airborne attacks from the Middle East, and Iran in particular as a "danger to strategic stability in European skies."

He said experts felt Europe faced no threat of such attacks.

Source: Agence France-Presse

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Shanghai Group Will Not Become A Military Alliance Says Russian Official

Moscow (RIA Novosti) May 23, 2007
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will not be transformed into a military alliance, Russia's senior security official said Tuesday. The regional group, dominated by Russia and China, is widely seen as a counter to U.S. influence in resource-rich Central Asia and NATO's expansion. "The issue of transforming the organization into a military alliance has not been brought up," Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov said.

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