Russia and the CIS News Digest
Russia Plans Strategic Forces Exercise for February
General Colonel Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, was quoted by Interfax-Military News Agency Jan. 29 on maneuvers planned for February, which will involve several launches of ICBMs in various regions of Russia. According to Kommersant, they will be the largest such exercise since 1982. Almost the entire fleet of Tu-160 strategic bombers will test-fire cruise missiles in the North Atlantic, while other strategic bombers conduct flights over Russia's Arctic regions and test-fire missiles at a southern range near the Caspian Sea. In addition, military satellites will be launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakstan and Plesetsk launch pad in Russia.
Moscow informed the United States that the purpose of the exercise is to fend off terror attacks.
Powell Talks in Moscow Were Chilly
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to Moscow, including seven hours of meetings with President Vladimir Putin on Jan. 26, was dominated by conflicting interests in and around Georgia, and considerable Russian bristling at persistent U.S. lecturing about Russia's need to meet U.S.-defined standards of democracy. The latter was a main topic of Powell's guest commentary, published in Izvestia, though he denied any intention to "interfere in internal dynamics of Russian political life." That disclaimer notwithstanding, Powell wrote that Russia has not achieved "essential balance" between executive power and other branches of government, and that in Russia, "political power is not yet fully tethered to law. Key aspects of civil societyfree media and political party development, for examplehave not yet sustained an independent presence."
Putin took note of the friction, as he greeted Powell, saying, "The fundamentals of Russian-U.S. relations are firm, and despite the disagreements in international affairs and on the way of upholding our national interests, their base is solid enough to let us settle the current differences."
Powell attempted to reassure the Russians about the continuing U.S. military presence in Georgia and plans to relocate military bases from Germany to new NATO members Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. "These might be small places where we could go and train for a brief period of time, or use air bases as access to dangerous places, crisis places," he said, though other sources have indicated that the facility in Poland will be quite large. About Georgia, Powell said that the fewer than 200 U.S. military training personnel there were "a very modest presence," and their mission would be "completed in the next several months." But Russian concerns remain, as Russian Ambassador to the UN Sergei Lavrov said that same day, regarding Georgia: "We are not saying that the United States has no part to play in this region. We do say, however, that this is a region just next to Russian borders. And this is a region, a situation that directly affects our physical stability and security.... Any substantial military presence, not observers, but real military presence by a third country, would not be considered as helpful to the stability of the region."
Typical of Russian press coverage of the visit, Nezavisimaya Gazeta headlined "A Cold Draft from Powell: Washington claims Georgia for its own zone of influence, while accusing Moscow of being undemocratic." Despite "placatory noises," the commentary said, "Powell still reiterated an opinion already expressed by the U.S. Administration: The nature of future dialogue and cooperation between our countries will directly depend on the state of democracy in Russia." Washington-based analyst Nikolai Zlobin of the Center for Defense Information said in a Jan. 22 commentary for Washington ProFile, "There's a rethinking of American policy toward Russia. Increasingly, Russia is being judged by what's going on inside the country. In this setting, the idea of strategic partnership, only recently espoused by both countries, has evaporated." Russian media took notice of the absence of any mention of Russia in President George W. Bush's State of the Union message.
[Source: Novosti, The Hindu]
Foreign Ministry Official Stresses Strategic Triangle
In New Delhi Jan. 28, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov continued the emphasis that Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov had put on cooperation among Russia, China, and India, when he was in India 10 days earlier. Fedotov said that Russia stands for further development of cooperation with India and China. "Russia has good and friendly relations with India. Russia is developing friendly relations with China. Thus, we have all the preconditions to cooperate more intensely," he said. He said that trilateral meetings among the three nations' foreign ministers had become "a common practice" in the framework of UN General Assembly sessions.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said at a Jan. 29 press conference in Moscow, that the Foreign Ministers of Russia, India, and China will meet in Moscow for trilateral discussions soon. "We are now discussing the dates for such a meeting to take place in Moscow in the near future," Ivanov said. This will be the third Foreign Minister-level meeting since 2002. Novosti reported from diplomatic sources that the meeting would likely take place this summer, after the Presidential elections in Russia (March) and national Parliamentary elections in India.
Russian Nuclear Export Plans Include Floating Plants
At a briefing for reporters Jan. 29 in Moscow, Russia's Minister for Atomic Energy, Alexander Rumyantsev, reported that for 2003, Russian nuclear exports increased by $400 million, to $3 billion. Rumyantsev also reported that the Ministry will file applications to participate in all tenders offered by China for the construction of its new nuclear plants. Russia has a plant under construction there now, which will be put into operation this year.
The Minister said that tests done on the nuclear reactor from the Kursk submarine, which sank in 2000, showed that it could have been started and operated, indicating the promise of developing floating nuclear power plants. He said that "the search is underway for investment to construct the first such floating, small-capacity nuclear power station," and that potential investors include China, India, and Indonesia.
Rumyantsev expressed regret that no contracts had been concluded for importing, storing, or reprocessing spent nuclear fuel in Russia, from foreign countries. In an interview with EIR, a counselor at the Russian Embassy in Washington explained that this is because the fuel from plants in South Korea and Taiwan is "American obligated," because it was supplied by the U.S. For the spent fuel to be sent to Russia, the U.S. would have to give permission, which it has not, due to its opposition to Russia's construction of the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran.
Academician Velikhov Seeks Compromise Fusion Site
Offers by France and Japan have been under consideration to host the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, fusion tokamak project. A decision was supposed to be made in December on the site for the multi-billion dollar project, but the parties were evenly split, with Europe, Russia, and China supporting the French site, and the U.S., Japan, and South Korea voting for the Japanese site. In early January, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, in a highly unusual move, taken as an expression of American hostility toward France over its stand on the Iraq war, publicly supported the site in Japan. Since then, the Japanese Minister for science and technology has been on a whirlwind series of trips to Russia, South Korea, and China, to try to convince them to change their votes. The French, meanwhile, have announced that Europe would be willing to "go it alone." and build the fusion experiment without the other partners.
Russian Academician E.P. Velikhov, who initiated and designed the ITER program in the 1980s, stepped into the fray Jan. 28, saying that he would fly to Japan for meetings. "Russia gives preference to the European site," he said, "but it can also agree to a compromise, under which the reactor is to be built in France, while Japan will host the control and data processing center," he told Itar-Tass. He explained that the new "round-the-world computer ring" used for the massive project, will be a global computer network, which has "nothing to do with the Internet, but is built specifically for the fast transmission of large volumes of scientific information."
Velikhov expressed the hope that, at the meeting next month in Vienna to decide on the ITER site, "the political ambitions of some of the member countries will be put on the back burner." Itar-Tass points out that ITER will be the world's second-largest research program, after the International Space Station.
Turmoil Around Rodina Bloc
Differences within the Rodina political bloc, rumored all month, broke into the open Jan. 30, with a turn of events that was headline news in Russia, though their cause and implications are not fully known. Sergei Glazyev held a meeting to found Rodina as a public organizationthe Rodina electoral bloc having existed only for the Dec. 7 Duma elections, and then as a group within the State Duma. Glazyev was elected sole chairman of the "National Patriotic Alliance Rodina." Other Rodina bloc leaders, including co-chairman Dmitri Rogozin and Victor Gerashchenko, were named to a political council of the new organization, though they were not present at the meeting.
Statements posted on Rodina's electoral web site said the Glazyev meeting was not legitimate. The Vesti national news program aired a phone interview with Rogozin, who was in Strasbourg as Russia's representative at a PACE session, in which he said the meeting had no legal force, and was merely a rally for Glazyev's Presidential campaign. He accused Glazyev of deliberately staging the event at a time when he, Rogozin, would be out of town. One of the statements on the Rodina site said that decisions on turning Rodina into a party (which Glazyev's meeting did not pretend to do) can only be taken at conventions of member parties, which will occur over the next month.
The Russian press is full of speculation about Glazyev's intentions to strike up different alliances for his Presidential campaign, with a wing of the Communist Party, among others. Those reports are not confirmed. On Jan. 28, Glazyev was the last of five individuals to file over 2 million signatures for ballot status (the others being President Putin, neo-liberal Irina Khakamada, former Duma Speaker Ivan Rybkin, and Federation Council leader Sergei Mironov). Validity checks by the Central Electoral Commission are under way. The candidacy of Gerashchenko of Rodina was rejected by the CEC on grounds of his not being nominated by Rodina as a whole, and the Supreme Court will rule Feb. 2 on his appeal.
Georgian Government To Be on Soros Payroll
Just before his inauguration on Jan. 25, incoming President of Georgia Michael Saakashvili attended the Davos World Economic Forum. There he announced that George Soros and the United Nations Development Program were creating a special fund from which to pay the salaries of Georgian government and law enforcement officials, in order to provide them financial security and remove the temptation to take bribes! "This will help in our struggle against corruption, as the officials will have a stimulus not to steal," Saakashvili explained. "This is the first part of reforms in Georgia, and the West supports it."
Declared mega-speculator Soros at his own press conference, "I am staging an experiment in Georgia." And, he added, "I don't regard this as an intervention in Georgia's domestic affairs." Soros also said, "I am proud of the revolution which has taken place in Georgia." He should be: He paid for it.
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