Russia: Cold War arms race is starting again
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By Matthew Moore
Last Updated: 5:20pm BST 30/05/2007

The Russian foreign minister today declared that the Cold War arms race
has restarted, 24 hours after Russia announced it had tested a missile
capable of breaking through any planned US missile shield.

Russia's new intercontinental ballistic missile takes off from Plesetsk
launching pad.
The new RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile is fired from its
launch pad today

Sergei Lavrov said that "strategic stability" was being damaged by
America's plans to erect a "Son of Star Wars" shield able to shoot down
enemy missiles.

Elements of the system will be based in Poland and the Czech Republic,
two former Soviet satellite states.

"I think that those who are professionally aware of this problem
understand that there is nothing ludicrous about this issue because the
arms race is starting again," he said. "Strategic stability is being
damaged."

Mr Lavrov was speaking at a conference in Potsdam, Germany over the
future of Kosovo - one of many issues currently causing friction between
Russia and the West.

The ballistic missile tested yesterday would be able to "overcome any
existing or future missile defence system", Sergei Ivanov, the first
deputy prime minister, said.

Launched at the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia, it can be armed
with up to 10 warheads and is designed to evade missile defence systems,
the Russian defence ministry said.

President Putin and Mr Ivanov, a former defence minister seen as a
potential candidate to succeed Mr Putin next year, have repeatedly said
Russia would continue to improve its nuclear weapons systems and respond
to US plans to deploy a missile defence system in Europe.

The test missile successfully travelled 3,400 miles before striking its
target on the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula.

A defence ministry statement said the missile would replace two ageing
ICBM systems known in the West as the SS-19 "Stiletto" and SS-18 "Satan".

Alexander Golts, a respected military analyst with the Yezhenedelny
Zhurnal online journal, expressed surprise at the announcement.

"It seems to be a new missile," he said. "It's either a decoy or
something that has been developed in complete secrecy."

The show of force came amid tensions between Russia and the West over US
plans to base parts of an anti-missile system in central Europe. Russia
believes the plans are a threat to its security while the US claims it
wants to deploy interceptor rockets in Poland and a radar base in the
Czech Republic to counter what it sees as a potential threat from "rogue
states", such as Iran.

"We think it is damaging and dangerous to transform Europe into a powder
keg and fill it with new forms of weapons," Mr Putin said yesterday.

The Russian president also attacked those criticising him for his record
on human rights and democracy. "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," he said.

Analysts said that yesterday's test may in fact be more closely related
to its plans to develop intermediate range nuclear weapons - which it is
banned from doing under a Soviet-American treaty. Mr Ivanov said the
deployment of medium and short-range missiles by Russia's neighbours to
the east and south now posed a "real threat".

"The Soviet-American treaty [on intermediate nuclear weapons] is not
effective because since [its signature] scores of countries have
appeared that have such missiles, while Russia and the United States are
not allowed to have them," he said.

"In these conditions, it is necessary to provide our troops with modern,
high-precision weapons."