Russia and the CIS News Digest
Russian Publication: LaRouche Leads Resistance to Neo-Cons
The December 2003 inaugural issue of Tendentsii (Tendencies), a quarterly supplement to the Russian monthly Russky Predprinimatel (Russian Entrepreneur), contains Andrei Kobyakov's article, "End of an Empire: the Neo-Conservatives as Catalyst of the Collapse of an America-Centric World." Kobyakov, an economist, is also co-author, with Mikhail Khazin, of a new book called The Decline of the Dollar Empire and Pax Americana.
The Tendentsii article is illustrated with a caricature of Russian neo-liberal Anatoli Chubais dressed up as Napoleon; Chubais ran unsuccessfully for the Duma (the lower house of the Russian Parliament) on a platform of "liberal imperialism." Chubais is behind the times, wrote Kobyakov, because his American role-models, the neo-cons Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Perle, are in big trouble: "The [neo-con] doctrine is overtly neo-imperial, and all its authors are open ideological heirs of Leo Strauss, well known for his fascist views. Already a year ago, the outstanding thinker and American opposition political figure Lyndon LaRouche exposed the fascist ideological roots of neo-conservatism. The quintessence of his brilliant investigation was the pamphlet Children of Satan, issued in a huge run by LaRouche's supporters and distributed by them all over the United States.
"And their efforts were not in vain: Despite the fact that LaRouche's activity is subject to a tacit boycott by the American press, this time the conspiracy of silence was broken, and now all the leading publications are discussing the activity of 'the Leo Strauss circle' and its fledglings, posing the question of whether or not there exists a secret, paramasonic organization in the bowels of the Washington power structure."
Tracing the plan of Cheney for preemptive military action on behalf of a one-superpower empire, since over a decade ago, Kobyakov develops the idea that "this is a policy of weakness, not strength"because the United States is bankrupt. A final section, subtitled "The Billionaires Strike Back," notes motion to dump the neo-cons, coming from such quarters as Jay Rockefeller, George Soros, Yale University historian Immanuel Wallerstein, and others.
Russian Strategic Maneuvers'Asymmetric' Response To U.S. Mini-Nukes and Missile Defense
Speaking Feb. 10, as the largest Russian strategic-force exercise in two decades got under way, Deputy Chief of the General Staff Col. Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky stressed that the Russian military was testing capabilities to "provide an asymmetric answer to existing and prospective weapons systems, including missile defense." He reaffirmed Russia's concern about the development of low-yield nuclear weapons (mini-nukes) by the United States and said the Russian maneuver was a reaction to that program, though "it's not sabre-rattling."
In a mid-February interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, former Minister of Atomic Energy Victor Mikhailov likewise denounced American moves to bring nuclear weapons into the active arsenal: "I regard this as evidence of an undisguised intention of building their own empire in a new, contemporary form. Look at their military strategy: preemptive strikes. They no longer distinguish between what kind of weapons to use, nuclear or non-nuclear. That is why they have set about developing low- and ultra-low-yield weapons."
On Feb. 17 and 18, President Vladimir Putin viewed the exercises from onboard Northern Fleet vessels in the Barents Sea, then at the Plesetsk satellite launch site in Russia's Arctic North. Speaking at Plesetsk, Putin stressed such training sessions "have not been held for a long time," due to lack of funding, but "we shall carry them out and will hold them in the future." As Putin observed the exercise, one submarine-launched ballistic missile failed to fire, apparently due to a satellite communications glitch, while another long-range rocket misfired and self-destructed shortly after launch.
Putin Calls for Military Technology Breakthroughs
Russia "must work for a breakthrough in developing a new generation of defense hardware," President Putin told a Feb. 18 press conference after observing strategic force maneuvers. He cited work on anti-missile systems, as well as the "potential to counteract modern threats.... The experiments conducted during these maneuvers, the experiments that were completed successfully, have proven that state-of-the art technical complexes will enter service with the Russian Strategic Missile Forces in the near future." The new weapons will be "capable of hitting targets continents away, with hypersonic speed, high precision, and the ability of wide maneuver."
On Feb. 19, Gen. Col. Baluyevsky elaborated on the test of a strategic ballistic missile system that he said could penetrate prospective missile shields. The prototype, he said, could maneuver so quickly as to make "any missile defense useless." Russian national TV played up Baluyevsky's assessment of the test, done at Plesetsk when Putin was visiting. Other Russian media called it the first demonstration of "what an 'asymmetric response' to U.S. withdrawal from the ABM treaty" means. Like Putin, Baluyevsky stressed the ability of the new system "to maneuver in the atmosphere at hypersonic speed, changing its trajectory in direction or altitude." He did not give details, but Gazeta.ru reports that video images of the launch suggested "it was a new warhead for the Topol model of mobile missile complex, and it is believed that the new missile will carry three such warheads."
Russian Demands To Inspect New NATO Bases, Charges Spying in Baltics
Speaking Feb. 7 at the 40th annual Wehrkunde conference of NATO Defense Ministers near Munich, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov voiced strong reservations about NATO's plan to set up bases in new member countries in Eastern Europe. He said, "NATO expansion has brought the Alliance's operations into the area of our country's vital interests and, therefore, NATO should in deed, not just in word, take due account of our concerns regarding both political and security matters." Regarding the explanation that the bases are needed as transit points in the war against terrorism, Ivanov said, "I am prepared to agree that some facilities in Bulgaria or Romania can be used as stopover bases for operations in the Middle East. Yet, I ask NATO representatives to explain to me what regions of the anti-terror effort they had on their minds when planning to establish NATO military infrastructure in Poland or the Baltic countries."
Ivanov said Russia should have regular access to any such new NATO facilities, to monitor their activities lest any "threat for Russia's security" arise. He also stated Russia's view that the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) is obsolete and does not provide stability in Europe. Some of the incoming NATO members, like the Baltic states, have not signed the CFE treaty, he noted, yet Russia has observed "unilateral commitments on restraint in stationing military equipment and armaments" in Kaliningrad Oblast, right next door.
On Feb. 26, a Russian Air Force General Staff spokesman complained about NATO AWACS flights in the air space of the Baltic region, which he said enabled NATO to conduct deep aerial reconnaissance of Belarus and the northwest region of Russia. Interfax quoted an unnamed Russian intelligence officer who said two NATO E-3 AWACS planes were conducting reconnaissance flights over the Baltic republics and Poland. NATO states that the flights were to check the compatibility of relevant NATO units with the BALTNET surveillance system.
Putin Campaigns for Science, Infrastructure
Using the Presidency as a bully pulpit for his re-election campaign, Russian President Vladimir Putin is echoing the most important themes of opposition candidate Sergei Glazyev and last year's Rodina electoral blocat least in words. On Feb. 24, Putin chaired a joint session of the Security Council and the State Council, on science policy. "Science neglected, is a national security problem," he warned, saying that Russia must go for "an innovative breakthrough" based on scientific achievements drawn from the military industrial sector. "In global competition," he said, "a country can only succeed if it cares about its sciences and technologies. Russia's huge science and technology potential is used ineffectively."
Putin called for the integration of science, government programs, and the private sector, with corporate financing of scientific research, at the same time as "the state has to provide direct financial assistance to scientists." He promised increased direct funding for military scientists involved in key modernization projects. He said that science can be competitive only if it is associated with industry in a "continuous corridor of production, from a discovery to the final product."
Putin was in East Siberia Feb. 26, as the guest of Khabarovsk Territory Governor Victor Ishayev. He addressed a meeting on "Developing the Transport Infrastructure of the Far East and the Transbaikal." He and Ishayev were shown on national television at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Chita-Khabarovsk Highway (last link in the Moscow-Vladivostok transcontinental highway). From the round table, Putin's televised remarks stressed that transportation is developed not for raw materials export alone, but as an approach to development that must also entail bringing new power-generating capacities on line and building up industry.
Russia Protests Arrest of Its Agents in Qatar
Russia's Acting Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Feb. 25 issued a strongly worded official protest to the Ambassador of Qatar, after the Gulf state arrested three Russian intelligence operatives on Feb. 18-19. According to Ivanov, they are being framed for the assassination by car bomb of former Chechen rebel President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in Qatar on Feb. 13. Charging that Yandarbiyev was personally responsible for the October 2002 theater hostage-taking in Moscow, which resulted in over 100 deaths, Ivanov said that the Russian agents were innocent of his murder, but had been "assigned to the [Russian] embassy in Qatar, legally and without violation of local laws, to conduct information-gathering and analysis related to combatting international terrorism." Such deployments, he added, "are completely within the scope of efforts allowed members of the anti-terror coalition, to identify terrorist organizations' sources and channels of funding, organization, and other support." He added that Yandarbiyev was "listed by the United Nations as one of the most dangerous international terrorists, due to his actions inside Russia and direct ties with al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations." Ivanov said that one of the detained Russians carries a diplomatic passport, and that one of them was released after talks with Qatar officials.
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