Munaeem's Blog

Recently, Saudi Prince went to Russia and met with Russian President Putin and discussed a range of issues. There are reports that Saudi Arabia wants to buy arms from Russia.

It looks the Washington's policies are alienating their Arab allies. They are leaning towards Russia.

Saudi Arabia , traditionally the most loyal client of western defense contractors plan to buy helicopters and other things from Russia. It is reported that Russian government's arm exporting agency , RosoboronExport is finalizing deals with Arab countries.

Interfax news agency quoted  a source in Russia's special services saying that a plot to assassinate  Putin during visit to Iran this week has been unearthed.

Putin is expected to travel Tehran on Monday night from Germany after meetings with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In my opinion, the report is baseless. The sole purpose of this report is to strain the Russian and Iran relationship.

Washington has refused to freeze its missile defense shield project. It insists that the system is need to defend against ``rogue states'' such as North Korea and Iran.

Russians say that Washington’s ‘ fears are unjustified. I agree with the Russians. If analyze the American intelligence reports and hearings, we come to the conclusion that Iranian are making false claims about their nuclear achievements.

In my opinion, American actions will start a new cold war in the Europe.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Croatia on June 24. The purpose of his visit is to discuss a a project that  will  link up Russia's Druzhba and Croatia's Adria oil pipelines.

Analysts say Putin's agenda in the Balkans is wider than the Druzhba-Adria oil pipeline project.

The Balkans is emerging as an energy transit hub. Both the Europeans and the Russians are trying to control the route.

The European Union hopes to use the Balkans as a transit route for natural gas from Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to Western Europe.

 Russians, however, wants to prevent this from happening, since it would give the continent an alternative to Russian natural gas and therefore reduce Moscow's political and economic clout.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has been awarded the "Closed Oyster," a satirical prize granted by a German media group for obstructing freedom of the press.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has been awarded the "Closed Oyster," a satirical prize granted by a German media group for obstructing freedom of the press.

KGB still rules Russia. The likely candidate for the 2008 presidential is said to be Sergei Ivanov, a retried KGB general and the current deputy prime minister.

Russians must know these KGB men are not friends of Russia. They are damaging the development of democracy in Russia.

President Putin also belonged to this KGB network; because of his authoritarian rule Russia’s could not progress.

Putin’s complaints are not entirely unfounded. He says Russia’s unilateral moves to draw down its weaponry from Eastern Europe and reduce its regional forces only spurred the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to strengthen its presence. Reflecting a widely held Russian analysis, Putin denies the missile shield is aimed at Iran, whose ability or interest in striking Europe remains in doubt.

“We are being told that this missile defense system is there to defend against something that doesn't exist,” he told reporters. He promises a new nuclear arms race if plans for the missile shield go forward.

In an interview reported in Italy’s Corriere della Sera, Putin said would once again aim its missiles at targets in Europe if US plans to build a missile defence shield near Russia’s borders.

Putin acknowledged Russia’s response risked restarting an arms race but he said Moscow would not be responsible for the consequences because Washington had started it.

Washington says the shield is not a threat to Russia but is designed to protect against possible missile attacks from what it calls ‘rogue states’

The is question , why does US want to install that shield.

In my opinion , American actions will start a new cold war.

AS THE G-8 is getting ready for its summit on the Baltic coast in Berlin (June 6-8), Russia and the US are getting ready for a fight on issues like Kosovo and NATO.

There are other contentious issues as well. The US wants to deploy a radar system in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland by 2011-12. It says the system would counter threats from so-called "rogue states" like North Korea, but Moscow sees it as an encroachment on its former sphere of influence.

Moscow is also concerned over the US military shipments last week to Lebanon's government, to fight the militants, and cautioned against such aid, saying it would further destabilize the region.
Understandably, G-8 president Germany is trying to avert a showdown between the US and Russia at the summit which seeks, among other things, to focus on climate change and aid to Africa.

One wonders if the present squabbling between the two former super powers is only to avert a meaningful debate at the summit on 'climate change' which countries like Japan, France and Germany are eager to take up and pursue further. The USA is the largest polluter of environment, causing climate change.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he feared that a US plan to build a missile defence system in eastern Europe could launch a new arms race. “What has happened in Europe that is so negative that one should need to fill central Europe with arms” Putin asked at a joint press conference in Vienna with Austrian President Heinz Fischer.

“Why should we build a new base in Bulgaria or a new base in Romania, why install a positioning radar in the Czech Republic and missiles in Poland."

“It will lead to nothing else than a new arms race and we find this completely counter-productive,” he added, following talks with his Austrian counterpart.

Russia will not turn over businessman Andrei Lugovoi sought by Britain in the death of former security agent Alexander Litvinenko, but may prosecute him under Russian criminal law, a spokesperson for the Russian Prosecutor-General's office said.

"No Russian national can be extradited to another country under Article 61 of the Russian Constitution," spokeswoman Marina Gridneva told reporters on Tuesday.

She said Russian prosecutors will carefully study the British extradition request when it comes and "thoroughly study all charges against the Russian citizen."

The spokeswoman said Mr. Lugovoi may be prosecuted under Russian law if found guilty.

Russian prosecutors, who questioned fugitive billionaire Boris Berezovsky in London in March for his possible involvement in the poisoning, said he had refused to answer questions related to the financial aspects of his relations with Litvinenko.

The prosecutors said they may need to travel to Britain again for further investigation.

via www.sptimes.ru:

However, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora denied reports that US is pressuring India to abandon the project. He said :

"The US is not pressuring us on the Indo-Iranian gas pipeline issue. India is not a country which will can be pressurised.

Those who are thinking that the US is mounting pressure on us are mistaken.

The pipeline, which will mainly transfer gas from Iran's South and North Pars offshore fields in the Persian Gulf, will initially carry 60 million cubic metres of gas per day, according to Hojatollah Ghanimifard, an Iranian negotiator. The second phase should see the transfer of an additional 90 million cubic metres per day.

The pipeline has been in the planning stage for more than a decade but has made slow progress mainly due to political tensions between India and Pakistan.

Over the past several weeks, Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of his potential successors, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, and members of the Russian Security Council have laid out an ambitious new plan for revitalizing the Russian military and revising its military doctrine. While this is not the first time a revival of the Russian military has been proposed, this project has attracted the support and close attention of President Putin himself.

Speaking at a security conference in Munich last month, Putin laid out his vision for a strengthened Russian presence in the international arena -- a presence that requires the modernization of the Russian Army, centralization of the defense industry under the more direct control of the Kremlin, and the adoption of a new military doctrine in response to NATO expansion.

Putin has attended on an almost weekly basis various defense sector events, such as missile launchings, military base inspections, and meetings with visiting defense contractors.

Late last month, Putin signed a decree creating the United Aviation Corporation, which combines all national civilian and military aircraft companies, including MiG, Sukhoi, Tupolev, and Ilyushin.

At the same time, the Russian Security Council is retooling the country's military doctrine to match the efforts of Putin and Ivanov to revitalize the country's armed forces. The council announced early this month that Russia's military doctrine, which was adopted in 1993 and amended in 2000, will also be revised in order to reflect the "strengthening of military blocs, especially NATO" as well as changes in world geopolitical forces and demographic trends.

www.rferl.org has more...

Shortly after giving a much-discussed speech at the annual security conference in Munich, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan from January 11-13, 2007. This was the first trip of a Russian head of state to the three countries, and following Putin's speech the trip took on greater importance, especially the visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The trip highlighted how Russia's perception of its role in the international system has changed. In recent years, Moscow has represented itself as a "great power" with global influence, which was evident in Putin's harsh criticism of the United States during the conference.

Russia's new attitude and its renewed sense of power have shaped its moves in the Middle East, particularly in the Persian Gulf, and are part of Russia's goal of playing a more important role within the international system.

Russian moves in the Middle East aim at establishing good relations with every regional player. Therefore, Putin seeks positive ties with Israel, Iran, Syria, and Egypt, trying to keep a balance among the different interests and perceptions of these actors.

The idea of Putin helping Riyadh with nuclear power development was discussed during the meeting. All major regional players in the Middle East appear eager to gain nuclear energy capabilities.

Therefore, Russia wants to exploit the opportunity to increase its regional involvement by giving support to those countries in search of nuclear energy.

The role of a "nuclear technology supplier" that Russia wants to play within this region is also an effort to show that Russia has the capability to represent an alternative for those regimes allied with the United States.

The strengthening of relations with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states is part of Russia's strategy for achieving this goal. Russia wants to use its role as a weapon and energy supplier, as well as a supplier of nuclear technology, to enhance its relations with all the major regional actors involved in the balance of power. It wants to use its relations with these states to place pressure on its geopolitical competitors, especially the United States.

Source : www.pinr.com