Russians’ Test Called Breach Of Missile Pact

[24601]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — The United States has concluded that Russia violated a landmark arms control treaty by testing a prohibited ground-launched cruise missile, according to senior American officials, a finding that was conveyed by President Obama to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in a letter on Monday.

It is the most serious allegation of an arms control treaty violation that the Obama administration has leveled against Russia and adds another dispute to a relationship already burdened by tensions over the Kremlin’s support for separatists in Ukraine and its decision to grant asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor.

“The United States has determined that the Russian Federation is in violation of its obligations under the I.N.F. treaty not to possess, produce or flight test a ground-launched cruise missile (GLCM) with a range capability of 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles,” that report will say.

In his letter to Mr. Putin, delivered by the American Embassy, Mr. Obama underscored his interest in a high-level dialogue with Moscow with the aim of preserving the 1987 treaty and discussing steps the Kremlin might take to come back into compliance. Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a similar message in a Sunday phone call to Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/world/europe/us-says-russia-tested-cruise-missile-in-violation-of-treaty.html?_r=0

[cosmicone]

1. bark... bark... bark.... n/t

[TT_Progress]

7. They have to try and keep the appearances up. Ultimate goal? Threat to the dollar

Russia is fine as long as it stays a backward economy. But now it is growing much faster than the west.

This is all about trying to keep the dollar, which is extremely hollow, keeping a monopoly. Who is going to accept binary digits in exchange for real goods and labor if they don't have to?

BRICS is the reason for the season.

[ballyhoo]

10. You got it!

ddddddd

[Tarheel_Dem]

16. Brazil & India's association with Putin may hurt them more than they know. Will they hang in there?

Putin's Ukrainian Gambit is Really Starting to Hurt the Russian Economy
Sun Jul 27, 2014 at 06:41 PM PDT.
by murphthesurf3

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meddling in Ukraine is starting to cost Russia dearly in financial markets.
Observations from around the globe.

1) The price to protect Russian bonds against default, already the highest among the world’s four largest emerging markets, has surged since the July 17 incident in which a Malaysia Air Airliner was shot down by what most experts believe to be a missile supplied to the Ukrainian separatists by Russia. The Micex Index resumed its decline wiping out about $28bn in market value since the Crimean invasion.

2) The cost of protecting Russian bonds against default for five years rose about 23 basis points to 207 basis points this month, the highest among the world’s largest emerging markets including Brazil, India and China.

3) Russia has had its credit rating cut to BBB- by Standard and Poor's, the third reduction since the Crimean invasion. BBB- is the lowest investment grade ranking available to economies the size of Rusia's. Global investors withdrew $348m from Russian bond and stock funds since the end of February.

4) Russian corporate debt sales overseas are down 67% this year just as cheap global borrowing costs spur record issuance worldwide.

5) Russia’s foreign reserves have slid by 17 percent in the last six months.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/27/1317180/-Putin-s-Ukrainian-Gambit-is-Really-Starting-to-Hurt-the-Russian-Economy#

[Tarheel_Dem]

15. ???

Russia ranks eighth among the world’s top 10 economies, based on 2013 nominal GDP:

United States -- $16.8 trillion;


China -- $9.2 trillion;


Japan -- $4.9 trillion;


Germany -- $3.6 trillion;


France -- $2.7 trillion;


United Kingdom -- $2.5 trillion;


Brazil -- $2.2 trillion;


Russia -- $2.1 trillion;


Italy -- $2.1 trillion;


India -- $1.9 trillion.

[Adrahil]

18. Ummmm... Russia's economy is CRAWLING.

Some of that has to do with the "good deals" the oligarchs are getting, but Putin is feeling mucular, and the economy has ground to a halt since then.

Just sayin'.... if Russia wants to become economically powerful in the 21st century, rebuilding the Soviet Union ain't the way to do it. Other than fossil fuels, arms, and hackers, Russia doesn't have a lot to bring the world right now.

[TT_Progress]

20. At the moment yes

But it had been on a trajectory

[defacto7]

2. Do I hear a deal

for Snowden in the making? What does Snowden have t do with cruise missiles? Ukraine yes but why would Snowden come up?

[Warren Stupidity]

3. Perhaps they will just pull out the way we did with the ABM,

or just ignore it, as we have done with the NPT, or announce it is no longer relevant, as we did with the Geneva Protocols.

Shit sure does come around.

[geek tragedy]

5. Putin does seem to be following down aWol Bush's path, doesn't he?

Doesn't bode well for Russia's economy or standing in the world community.

[ballyhoo]

6. Unless of course Russia pulls out of SWIFT and announces

to the world each country can pay for it's gas in whatever currency they have--but not dollars. Then watch the Dow drop 35 per cent and gold climb to two grand after which bank assets are questioned as to their real worth. Jim Sinclair and Paul Roberts have both given long interviews on this. And let's see where Britain is going for gas when the Chinese say, sure, we can take what they use. No problem.

[Psephos]

17. If anything, you have underestimated the consequences.

Whistling past the graveyard is not my idea of smart diplomacy.

[Xithras]

19. Unfortunately it's not just Bush at fault for this

Russia has consistently cited two causes for abandoning the treaty (they originally said they were pulling out in 2007). First, it doesn't bind any other nations, and they're getting nervous because China is building up a huge arsenal of cruise missiles in this range. In a conventional war with China, Russia would be out matched and would be forced to escalate to nuclear weapons rather quickly.

Russia was also initially going to pull out because of the American Prompt Global Strike program that Bush started, which was going to put missiles in Poland. The PGS was also going to develop a new ICBM for American use that would allow conventional strikes anywhere in the world within 1 hour, by shortening their flight path (essentially using an ICBM as an intermediate range missile). After Russia's threat, Bush scrapped the Poland idea and the missile program was shelved.

The Obama administration restarted the missile program shortly after taking office, and in 2011 the United States tested a new missile with a 2300 mile range, while claiming that it didn't violate the treaty because it was technically "long range" and not "intermediate range". Russia accused the United States of violating the treaty, but we ignored them. On top of that, just this past February, the Navy officially asked for proposals to develop technology studies for a new intermediate range submarine launched conventional missile system that would skirt the treaty (which only deals with land-launched systems).

Putin hasn't been a fan of the treaty for a very long time, but we haven't exactly been living by its spirit and intent either.

[geek tragedy]

4. Russian government: that missile belongs to Ukrainian Nazis nt

[24601]

8. This story isn't about the fighting in Ukraine. It had to to with Russian breaking an arms control

treaty. The prohibited activities, involving mid to long-range ground-launched cruise missiles, began years ago. It was in 2011 that the Administration inferred the tests violated the 1987 treaty.

More importantly (and the breaking news) it's about the administration stepping up and calling out the Russians.

[geek tragedy]

12. I was making a joke. nt

[dipsydoodle]

9. Moscow may walk out of nuclear treaty after US accusations of breach

Russia may be on the point of walking out of a major cold war era arms-control treaty, Russian analysts have said, after President Obama accused Moscow of violating the accord by testing a cruise missile.

There has been evidence at least since 2011 of Russian missile tests in violation of the 1987 intermediate range nuclear forces (INF) treaty, which banned US or Russian ground-launched cruise missiles with a 500 to 5,500-mile (805 to 8,851km) range. But the Obama administration has been hesitant until now of accusing Moscow of a violation in the hope that it could persuade Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, to stop the tests or at least not deploy the weapon in question, known as the Iskander, or R-500.

Washington has also been reticent because of the technical differences in definition of what constitutes the range of a missile under the INF treaty. That ambiguity now seems to have dropped away. According to Pavel Felgenhauer, a defence analyst and columnist for the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Russia has indeed broken the treaty by testing the R-500 which has a range of more than 1,000km.

"Of course, this is in gross violation of the 1987 treaty, but Russian officials including Putin have said this treaty is unfair and not suitable for Russia," Felgenhauer said. "The United States doesn't have [medium-range missiles] but other countries do have them, such as China, Pakistan and Israel, so they say this is unfair and wrong."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/29/moscow-russia-violated-cold-war-nuclear-treaty-iskander-r500-missile-test-us

[ballyhoo]

11. Let them walk away from it. It's a treaty from another

time. When you control the world currency you can hammer a lot of countries into signing treaties. Them days are coming to a close.

[Cali_Democrat]

13. Russia can walk away if they want to...it's a treaty and a mutual agreement

Of course if they walk away, they have to be prepared for the consequences.

The US and its allies are much more technologically capable when it comes to developing weapons delivery systems such as cruise missiles.

I'm not so sure Russia would want this arms race.

[jakeXT]

14. ( 2005 ) Russia confronted Rumsfeld with threat to quit key nuclear treaty

Matthew Bunn, a nuclear arms expert at Harvard University, said Russia's military hawks had wanted to quit the INF treaty for some years in response to Nato expansion and a possible threat from China. But, he added, Russia understood very well the "political pain" it would suffer if it did abrogate the treaty.

Arms control advocates in Washington said a collapse of the 1987 treaty would be a disaster for non-proliferation efforts and Russia's relations with Europe and the US. Hardliners in the US expressed less concern, however.

Henry Sokolski, a former arms control official who heads the private Non-proliferation Policy Education Center, said his response to Mr Ivanov would have been: "Make my day".

"If (the Russians) want to go ahead and break out - fine," he said, arguing that such a move would damage Russia's relations with China and Europe but would not have a direct impact on the US.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0cdfdaf8-9043-11d9-9a51-00000e2511c8.html

[jakeXT]

21. Kiev is laughing their asses of and using ballistic missiles