The head of Russian strategic missile forces warned yesterday that Moscow could restart production of short and medium-range missiles on short notice, amid fears of a renewed arms race.
"If a political decision is taken on creating such a class of missiles, obviously Russia will build them quickly. We have everything needed to do this," said General Nikolai Solovtsov, quoted by Interfax.
The warning came amid mounting tensions with the US over Washington's plans to place missile defense facilities in two countries that were ruled from Moscow in Soviet times, the Czech Republic and Poland.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to withdraw from a Cold War-era arms treaty banning short and medium-range nuclear weapons, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.
Solovtsov stressed yesterday that Russia remained within the INF treaty.
"We act strictly in accordance with it," he said, adding that "when it comes to any class of missile it is expedient to put the question: Are they needed for Russia's security?"
On Thursday Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said that Moscow remained concerned about Washington's missile defense plans despite new proposals by the US aimed at easing Russian concerns.
The US wants to place an early warning radar in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptors in Poland as part of an expanded missile defense system it says is not directed against Russia.
Washington insists the facilities are needed to protect against "rogue states," notably Iran, and would be useless against Russia's vast arsenal.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration has gone almost as far as it will in accommodating Russian concerns, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
"I think we've gone pretty far," he said in an interview on Thursday on a return flight to Washington.
"I think we've leaned about as far forward as we can," he said. "We've offered a lot. And my view is, now I want to see some movement on their part."
US offers include an arrangement that would permit Russian officials to be present at major US missile defense sites to monitor their activities, possibly including at the proposed US sites in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Moscow strongly objects to the European sites, arguing that they are designed for an Iranian missile threat that does not exist.
Hoewver, Gates said he believes the Russians agree with Washington that Iran intends to continue advancing its ballistic missile program.
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
A French-Algerian man went on trial in France on Monday for burning to death his wife in 2021, a case that shocked the public and sparked heavy criticism of police for failing to take adequate measures to protect her. Mounir Boutaa, now 48, stalked his Algerian-born wife Chahinez Daoud following their separation, and even bought a van he parked outside her house near Bordeaux in southwestern France, which he used to watch her without being detected. On May 4, 2021, he attacked her in the street, shot her in both legs, poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. A neighbor hearing
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
‘HUMAN NEGLIGENCE’: The fire is believed to have been caused by someone who was visiting an ancestral grave and accidentally started the blaze, the acting president said Deadly wildfires in South Korea worsened overnight, officials said yesterday, as dry, windy weather hampered efforts to contain one of the nation’s worst-ever fire outbreaks. More than a dozen different blazes broke out over the weekend, with Acting South Korean Interior and Safety Minister Ko Ki-dong reporting thousands of hectares burned and four people killed. “The wildfires have so far affected about 14,694 hectares, with damage continuing to grow,” Ko said. The extent of damage would make the fires collectively the third-largest in South Korea’s history. The largest was an April 2000 blaze that scorched 23,913 hectares across the east coast. More than 3,000
RSS