Angered about the ballistic missile defense system the US is building in Eastern Europe, Vladimir Putin promised to "do something." Oleg Shchedrov of Reuters reports:
President Vladimir Putin on Friday renewed criticism of U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Eastern Europe, saying Russia would take "appropriate measures" to counter the system.
Putin told Czech President Vaclav Klaus at a Kremlin meeting that the proposed missile shield would be used to track Russian military activities."These systems will monitor Russian territory as far as the Ural mountains if we don't come out with a response," Putin told Klaus. "And we will indeed do this. Anyone would."
"We will not get hysterical about this. We will just take appropriate measures," he said, without elaborating.
Read the whole article at the link above. It's hard to imagine just WHAT "measures" Putin can take, or why he feels threatened by a missile-defense system in the first place (following Reagan's famous gesture, Bush has offered the protection of our missile defenses to Russia, too). Even with the price of oil and gas at a long-term peak, Russia can't afford to maintain its ballistic missiles and defense systems, much less upgrade them.
He may attempt to blackmail us by threatening to withdraw from cooperative arms control operations, or even to use energy as a weapon as he has tried recently with Ukraine and Georgia. In either case, though, his hand is weak - and that may just be the problem. The former KGB goon misses the "good old days" of the Cold War when the world lived in fear of the Soviet Empire. Too bad, Vlad.
Permalink | E-mail This | Technorati Links | Sphere: Related Content | Digg this! | FARK It!
Filed under:
National Security, World
Tags: defense, military, putin, russia
Comments (8)
Russia needn't worry about ... (Below threshold)1. Posted by LCVRWC | April 27, 2007 3:01 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Russia needn't worry about the American missle shield. Russia needs to worry abou the Chinese missle shield.
OK, China hasn't announced they have a missle shield, but they didn't announce they had anti-satellite capability, either, unless you count blasting one of their old weather satellites out of the sky as an "announcement."
1. Posted by LCVRWC | April 27, 2007 3:01 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 27, 2007 15:01
2. Posted by Brian | April 27, 2007 6:39 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
No need to worry. Bush looked into Putin's soul.
2. Posted by Brian | April 27, 2007 6:39 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 27, 2007 18:39
3. Posted by cirby | April 27, 2007 7:54 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Of course, as we pointed out in a couple of the posts on the Blue side, those ABMs aren't really aimed at Russian ICBMs. They're aimed at Iranian ICBMs, which would follow a trajectory right over Poland to hit Germany, England, or France.
So I guess Putin's "counter" is to sell even more technology to Iran...
3. Posted by cirby | April 27, 2007 7:54 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 27, 2007 19:54
4. Posted by metprof | April 27, 2007 10:17 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
After watching the "gaggle of eight" debate last night you haven't a thing to worry about.
4. Posted by metprof | April 27, 2007 10:17 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 27, 2007 22:17
5. Posted by Zelsdorf Ragshaft III | April 28, 2007 12:36 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Metprof, that is true, what you say. None of those people are in the least qualified to be President of the United States.
5. Posted by Zelsdorf Ragshaft III | April 28, 2007 12:36 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 28, 2007 00:36
6. Posted by Andy | April 28, 2007 7:30 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
You are soooooooooooo naive.
6. Posted by Andy | April 28, 2007 7:30 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 28, 2007 07:30
7. Posted by _Mike_ | April 28, 2007 10:06 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Brian:
No need to worry. Bush looked into Putin's soul.
Uh huh. And the missile shield is apparently still going up. What can rational person deduce ?
7. Posted by _Mike_ | April 28, 2007 10:06 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 28, 2007 22:06
8. Posted by boomer | April 28, 2007 11:23 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
HES GOT THE RIGHT TO DO IT!, why should they tolerate that?!
is polony a colony of the US!? no
8. Posted by boomer | April 28, 2007 11:23 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 28, 2007 23:23