Russia sends out mixed signals

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, JULY 13. Moscow has sent a new signal to Washington about its willingness to strike a deal on anti-missile defences, while at the same time angrily reacting to the U.S. plan to speed up the deployment of a National Missile Defence system (NMD).

The Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, received Dr. Henry Kissinger in the Kremlin on Friday in a new attempt to keep the U.S. from walking out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Emerging from the hour-long meeting, Dr. Kissinger, who had been directly involved in signing the ABM Treaty as the then Secretary of State, said he was upbeat on chances of a Russian- American accord on missile defence.

``We discussed the issue (of missile defences) and I'm optimistic an agreement can be reached,'' Dr. Kissinger said. He told reporters he was impressed by an atmosphere of cooperation in the Kremlin, which contrasted sharply with the spirit of confrontation that he had observed on his previous visit to Moscow.

``On key issues, our views broadly coincide with President Putin,'' the RIA Novosti quoted Dr. Kissinger as saying.

Meanwhile, senior Kremlin officials flayed the U.S. for its decision to go ahead with the construction of missile- interceptor sites in Alaska.

Marshal Igor Sergeyev, former Defence Minister and Mr. Putin's aide on strategic stability, said Washington was heading towards nuclear ``hegemony''.

``Unfortunately, all our predictions are coming true,'' Marshal Sergeyev was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. ``The U.S. is using consultations with allies and with Moscow as a `smokescreen' to cover a decision that had already been taken. In effect, globalisation is turning into Americanisation''.

The Security Council Secretary, Mr. Vladimir Rushailo, warned that America's withdrawal from the ABM Treaty would spark a news arms race.

``Russia, as well as many other countries, believes that a unilateral withdrawal of the United States from the ABM Treaty would lead to the destruction of strategic stability, a new powerful spiral of the arms race, particularly in space, and the development of means for overcoming the national missile defence system,'' Mr. Rushailo told reporters on a trip to Belarus, according to Interfax.

Mr. Putin recently warned the U.S. that Russia was prepared to retaliate by deploying multiple warheads on its latest generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles if Washington dumped the ABM Treaty.

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Section  : International
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