The New Cold War that weazl has been talking about is officially launched

Russia forced into ‘new arms race’

By Catherine Belton in Moscow

Russia will develop a new generation of high-tech weapons in retaliation for Nato expansion and the US deployment of missile defence systems on its border, Vladimir Putin said on Friday as he lashed out against a “new arms race”.

In a speech just weeks before March 2 presidential elections in which his handpicked successor is expected to sweep to victory, the Russian president launched a blistering attack on the west’s foreign policy. He said Nato and the US had failed to respond to Moscow’s security concerns and had used consultations merely as “diplomatic cover for implementing their own plans”.

“In effect we are being forced to retaliate,” he said in a speech to Russia’s influential State Council, a gathering of political and business leaders. “Russia has, and always will have, responses to these new challenges,” he said to applause.

“Over the next several years, Russia should start the production of new types of weapons systems, which are in no way inferior to what other states have, and in some cases are superior.”

Mr Putin’s speech looked at first glance a testament to his eight years in power as he laid out how stability had been restored from the chaos of the 1990s. It was billed as setting Russia’s growth strategy until 2020. But he made no mention of his expected successor, Dmitry Medvedev, as he laid out broad policy goals for further economic growth over the next 12 years as if he were to remain in power.

Mr Medvedev, who is expected to remain under Mr Putin’s shadow for the first years of his presidency, has several times delayed speeches on his own programme for the economy.

Mr Putin’s broadsides against the west dominated the tone of the speech – just as the final years of his presidency have been dominated by a deepening chill in Russia’s relations with the west.

“Nato itself is expanding. It's approaching our borders. We drew down our bases in Cuba and in Vietnam. What did we get? New American bases in Romania, Bulgaria. A new third missile defence region in Poland.

“We are categorically being told these actions aren't directed at Russia, and therefore our concerns are completely unfounded. That's not a constructive response.

“It’s already clear that a new arms race is being unleashed across the world ... It’s not our fault, we didn’t start it,” he said.

He claimed growing foreign interest in Russia was being fuelled by a “mounting struggle for resources”, while attempts by foreign governments to interfere in Russian politics were “immoral and illegal”.

“We see how under the guise of declarations for freedom and open society the sovereignty of countries and entire regions is being destroyed,” he said in a clear nod to the US campaign in Iraq. “Many conflicts, foreign policy acts and diplomatic démarches smell of oil and gas.”

Nikolai Petrov, an analyst with the Moscow Carnegie Centre in Moscow, said the speech, peppered with ideology and calls for the population to unite against enemies trying to weaken Russia, was aimed at the Russian electorate ahead of the poll. Mr Petrov said it was also a clear sign to all that Mr Putin intended to remain in charge. “They are saying Putin is an epoch, and the epoch of Putin won’t end with elections.”

Mr Putin later met Poland’s new prime minister, Donald Tusk, in the highest-level talks between the two countries since 2004. Both sides sought to mend relations frayed by US plans to deploy missile interceptors in Poland and by Warsaw’s veto under its previous prime minister of the start of talks between Russia and the EU.

Mr Tusk said after the meeting that it was clear “both sides were bored with the cold atmosphere”.

Original article posted here.