Word: putin
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...President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that if the U.S. goes ahead and builds the system without agreement from Russia, his response will simply be to add to the number of nuclear warheads atop each missile in order to ensure Russia's ability to overwhelm a missile shield...
...Putin also seems to be talking about drawing China into international strategic arms negotiations for the first time...
...also much more polite. Though stung by slights from Washington in the early weeks of the Bush Administration, the Kremlin has been very discreet. Putin has discussed the Russian car industry and played host to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands but kept mum about George Bush or national missile defense. His Defense Minister, Sergei Ivanov, has taken a tougher line. Although the Kremlin originally signaled a willingness to discuss changes to the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, Ivanov now implies that there is little to discuss. Adjusting the treaty means destroying it, he warned last week, and Russia does not intend...
...mixed signals are not surprising. Putin's team is new and inexperienced and much less confident than they would like the world to think. Their foreign policy so far has been characterized by lots of world travel and very little in the way of a plan. Certain features are clear, however. Perceived U.S. arrogance irritates Russians--ordinary citizens as well as officialdom. So does NATO, not to mention the Europeans who criticize limitations on the press or abuses in Chechnya. Moreover, the Kremlin's world view is informed by deep suspicion. Russian academics who work with foreign groups are potential...
...meantime, the Russians are developing relations with China, Iraq, Libya, Vietnam and North Korea and deepening links with Iran. Western criticism of this infuriates the Kremlin--but emboldens Putin's policy planners as well. These are, after all, countries that enjoyed good relations with the old Soviet Union, and all keep their own people under varying degrees of control. For the neo-Soviets who run Russia these days, this is reassuring. But like their Soviet predecessors, they also want major world powers to consult them, include them, respect them. This is what they miss and what, for a weekend...