Yorkshire CND - Russian missile test adds to arms race fears

30 May 2007
Russian missile test adds to arms race fears
Luke Harding in Moscow
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2091130,00.html

See also: other related news items.

Russia's new intercontinental ballistic missile takes off from Plesetsk launching pad. Photograph: Reuters

Russia yesterday threatened a new cold war-style arms race with the United States by announcing that it had successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of penetrating American defences.

Russia's hawkish first deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov, said the country had tested both a new multiple-warhead intercontinental missile, the RS-24, and an improved version of its short-range Iskander missile.

He said the missiles were capable of destroying enemy systems and added: "As of today Russia has new missiles that are capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defence systems. In terms of defence and security, Russia can look calmly to the country's future."

The missile tests follow months of anger in Moscow over the Bush administration's determination to install parts of a controversial missile defence shield in eastern Europe.

President Vladimir Putin has been incensed by the Pentagon's plans to site missile interceptors and radar shields in Poland and the Czech Republic. The row has contributed to the worst relations between Russia and the west for 20 years.

But as well as confrontational rhetoric from Mr Putin, Russia has also been preparing a secret military response, analysts said yesterday. They said the new RS-24 missile was capable of:

carrying multiple independent warheads, making it almost impossible to shoot down
travelling inter-continentally to hit targets thousands of miles away
using sophisticated navigation systems which allow the warheads to lock on to different targets

Yesterday's launch took place at the Plesetsk cosmodrome in north-west Russia. The missile successfully hit its target 3,400 miles away in far eastern Kamchatka peninsula, on Russia's Pacific coast, the Russian strategic missile forces said.

The statement said the missile would replace two ageing ICBM systems - the RS-18 and RS-20, known in the west as the SS-19 Stiletto and SS-18 Satan, respectively. Separately, an upgraded and more accurate version of the Iskander-M cruise missile, was fired from southern Astrakhan.

Mr Ivanov, a potential successor to Mr Putin next year, hailed both tests as successful. He said Russia now had a "new tactical system and a new strategic system". He also signalled that Russia was preparing to upgrade its nuclear forces.

The treaty between the US and the Soviet Union banning intermediate range nuclear weapons was no longer effective, warned Mr Ivanov, Russia's former defence minister, because it did not apply to Russia's neighbours such as China.

Alexander Pikayev, an arms control expert and senior analyst at the Moscow-based Institute for World Economy and International Relations, said the development of the missile had probably been inevitable after the Bush administration unilaterally withdrew from the Soviet-era anti-ballistic missile treaty in 2002, preventing the Start-II treaty from coming into force. The treaty banned missiles with multiple warheads.

The test comes at a time of increased tension between Russia and the west over missiles and other weapons issues.

The Bush administration insists its new missile defence system is aimed at rogue missiles fired by Iran or North Korea. But Russia says the system destroys the strategic balance of forces in Europe and is a direct threat to the country's nuclear arsenal.

"We consider it harmful and dangerous to turn Europe into a powder keg," Mr Putin said yesterday when asked at a news conference with the Portuguese prime minister, Jose Socrates, about the test.

On Monday Russia called for an emergency conference in June on the key Soviet-era conventional forces in Europe treaty, which has been a source of increasing friction between Moscow and Nato.

The call follows last month's statement from Mr Putin in which he declared a moratorium on observing Russia's obligations under the treaty, which limits the number of aircraft, tanks and other non-nuclear heavy weapons around Europe. The treaty was first signed in 1990 and amended in 1999 to reflect changes since the Soviet breakup.

Russia has ratified the amended version, but the US and other Nato members have refused to do so until Moscow withdraws troops from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia - an issue Moscow says is unrelated.

Mr Putin warned that Russia could dump the treaty altogether if western nations refused to ratify its amended version, and the foreign ministry said on Monday that it had lodged a formal request for a conference among treaty signatories in Vienna, Austria, on June 12-15.

30 May 2007
Putin Lashes Out at US, EU as Russia Tests Missile
Deutsche Welle

http://www.dw-world.de/popups/...

Russian President Putin warned Tuesday that a planned US missile defense shield would make Europe a "powder keg" and lashed out at his EU critics. Russia's military meanwhile successfully tested a new ballistic missile.

"We think it is damaging and dangerous to transform Europe into a powder keg and fill it with new forms of weapons," Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a joint press conference in Moscow with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates.

The comments come amid a stand-off with Washington over US plans to place a radar base in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland, part of a missile defense shield to protect against what the United States calls "rogue" states, such as Iran and North Korea.

Russia tests missile

Russian officials meanwhile announced on Tuesday they had successfully tested a new multiple warhead ballistic missile designed to overcome air-defense systems such as the proposed US shield.

Is the world heading towards a new arms race?Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Is the world heading towards a new arms race?

Fired from the north-eastern Arkhangelsk region, the RS-24 rocket hit its target on the Kamchatka Peninsula that juts into the Pacific Ocean 6,000 kilometers (3,720 miles) away, the country's strategic missile forces said in a statement.

"The RS-24 reinforces the military potential of the strategic forces to overcome anti-missile defense systems," the statement said.

Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, a former defense minister and widely seen as a potential successor to President Vladimir Putin in 2008, said the RS-24 could overcome any such anti-missile system.

"These complexes are capable of penetrating all existing and perspective anti-missile systems," he was quoted by Interfax. "So from the point of view of defense and security, Russians can look at the future calmly."

Catching up with the US

Putin announced Moscow was freezing compliance with a European conventional weapons control treaty and has warned that a new arms race is possible.

Military analyst Alexander Golts said the test was part of a massive push by the Russian government to catch up with the United States' strategic missile forces.

"The main military political aim of the current Russian leadership is to regain parity with the United States," he said, according to AFP.

Putin criticizes EU

Putin likes to point out that police in western countries also uses forceBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Putin likes to point out that police in western countries also uses force

Putin on Tuesday also criticized the European Union, whose relations with Moscow have been severely strained in recent months, leading EU leaders to voice sharp criticism of democratic setbacks in Putin's Russia.

"Let's not talk as if on one side we are dealing with pure, white and fluffy partners and on the other side with a monster that has just left the forest and has claws instead of feet and horns growing," he said.

"The death sentence in several Western countries, secret prisons and torture right in Europe, problems with the media in some European countries... are these also common values?" Putin asked.

Strained relations

Relations between Brussels and Moscow have been exacerbated by the concerns of newer EU members that previously were either part of the Soviet Union or members of the Soviet bloc.

During a Russia-EU summit earlier this month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced concern about Russia's commitment to democracy and human rights.

After the German leader urged Moscow to allow a banned opposition march during a recent EU-Russia summit in Samara, Russia, local authorities approved the march.

Organizers, however, were subsequently detained on trains and in airports on suspicion of having counterfeit money and tickets or of carrying grenades, and could not make the march.

30 May 2007
Russia tests missile which 'penetrates any defence'
By Steve Gutterman in Moscow
Deutsche Welle

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2594207.ece

Russia tested new strategic and tactical missiles yesterday, flexing its muscles amid military disputes with the West and bitter opposition to a US plan for a defensive shield in Europe.

The First Deputy Prime Minister, Sergei Ivanov, said Russia tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple independent warheads and a tactical cruise missile with an increased range, boasting that the weapons can penetrate any missile defence system.

"As of today, Russia has new tactical and strategic complexes that are capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defence systems," Mr Ivanov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. "So in terms of defence and security, Russians can look calmly to the country's future."

The missile, called the RS-24, was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk launch site in north-west Russia. Its test warhead landed on target about 3,400 miles away, the Strategic Missile Forces said.

President Vladimir Putin and Mr Ivanov have said repeatedly that Russia would continue to improve its nuclear arsenal and respond to US plans to deploy a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Russia has bristled over the plans, vocally dismissing US assertions that the system would be aimed at blocking possible attacks by Iran and saying it would destroy the strategic balance of forces in Europe.

"We consider it harmful and dangerous to turn Europe into a powder keg and to fill it with new kinds of weapons," Mr Putin said yesterday at a news conference with the Portuguese Prime Minister, José Socrates.