Russia: Putin Vows Military Spending Hike

After weeks of verbal attacks on the United States, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has unveiled a massive new military spending plan.
Putin’s ambitious military shopping list this week includes: 28 new submarines, 50 surface ships, 100 military satellites, 400 new intercontinental ballistic missiles, 600 helicopters, 600 new war planes and 2,300 tanks.
Turning to the subject of Washington’s plan for a missile defense network to protect Europe from a rocket attack by Iran, Putin ominously promised Russia’s response will be “effective and asymmetrical.”
Then, in a meeting with Russian military commanders, he praised the so-called Soviet “atom spies” who stole American nuclear bomb blueprints at the start of the Cold War.
Finally, on Thursday, Defenders of the Fatherland Day, he shouted at a mass meeting of tens of thousands in Moscow: “We will not allow anyone to impose his will on us because we have our own will, which has helped us win at all times!”
Is Russia embarking on a new Cold War? yes on March 4.
Putin, the leading candidate, wants to lock down the votes of one-quarter-million Russians who work in military defense industries.
One skeptic is Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs magazine.
“My personal view is that all fantastic figures discussed today, they are absolutely impossible to implement,” Lukyanov said. “Finally, it will seriously cut appetites both for defense industry and social expenditures.”
The new spending plans would double the slice of Russia’s economy devoted to defense – from three percent today to six percent 10 years from now.
Putin seems to be riding to an election victory boosted by Russian oil priced at $125 a barrel – near historic highs, and three times the lows of three years ago.
But many economists warn against excessive military investments by Russia, a country with an aging population similar to that of Western Europe. They say that, if forced to choose between buying tanks and paying pensions, the Kremlin will choose social spending.
Last Fall, excessive military spending provoked Alexei Kudrin to quit after serving for 11 years as Russia’s Finance Minister. He called the military spending plans “completely impossible.”
Many political analysts believe that if Putin is elected president, as expected next month, he may ask Kudrin to return as Prime Minister.
Lukyanov again on the ups and downs of Russia’s oil export dependent economy. “Any economic upheaval, which sooner or later comes, will be used by the government to cut all expenditures. And they will say, sorry we wanted to give it all to you, but unfortunately we can’t anymore. That will happen, definitely,” said Lukyanov,” said Lukyanov.
Conveniently for Russia’s leaders, polls indicate that Americans show no interest in joining an arms race with Russia. Two weeks ago Gallup pollsters asked 1,000 Americans: who is America’s greatest enemy?
Only 2 percent responded: “Russia.”

NATO sees little progress in missile talks with Russia

NATO and Russia have made little progress in talks to cooperate on a US-led missile shield for Europe, and failing a deal may have to drop plans for a summit in May, NATO's secretary general said Thursday.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen held out hope that the former Cold War foes will reach agreement before the 28-nation alliance holds its own summit in Chicago on May 20-21.
"However, I also have to make it clear that we have not made much progress so far," he said.
"We have had a lot of talks. These talks will continue. Maybe we will not have a clarified situation until a few weeks before the summit," Rasmussen said.
"We still keep it as an option to have a NATO-Russia summit in Chicago, but if there's no deal, probably there will be no summit."
Russia has also raised doubts about joining the summit, with the deputy foreign minister saying a decision would be taken after March 4 presidential elections expected to return Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin.
NATO and Russia agreed to explore ways to cooperate at a previous summit in Lisbon in November 2010, but the two sides have struggled to reach a deal.
Russia wants a legally-binding pledge that the missile shield will not threaten its strategic deterrent, but the alliance has refused, with the United States insisting that the system is aimed at countering Iranian missile threats.
NATO has also rejected Russia's demand to create a common anti-missile system, insisting instead on keeping two separate operations.
Russia has threatened to deploy missiles on the European Union's borders, citing concerns over plans to station US interceptors in Poland.
"I do believe that the Russian leaders will realise that it's also in their interest to cooperate with NATO on missile defence," Rasmussen said.

Is America A Victim of Israeli Aggression And False Flag Terror, Or Is That Just Clever CIA Propaganda?

In an interview on the Chris Matthews show on MSNBC, former CIA officer Robert Baer said that Israel is behind the string of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. The latest victim of this terror campaign was 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan.
Baer said that Israel’s motive is to provoke Iran into a military response, which would force the United States of America to retaliate against Iran on the behalf of Israel. This narrative makes clear that America is the victim, not the fellow conspirator, of Israeli terrorism. But is this narrative true, or is this just a clever CIA psyop to make Israel take the blame for terrorist actions against Iran that were approved by the CIA and the White House in advance? The historical record and the facts show that the latter is the case.
It is naive and anti-historical to believe that the U.S. intelligence community is kept out of the loop of Israel’s policy towards Iran. We cannot give the CIA the benefit of the doubt in the murder of an Iranian nuclear scientist. Simply put, the CIA has no credibility.
Is the CIA capable of murdering Iranian scientists, or assisting in such an act? Yes. The CIA has a long track record of state-sponsored terrorism and political assassinations, including on American soil (JFK, 9/11, Oklahoma City Bombing).
Making Israel take the heat for a policy of assassinations against Iranian nuclear scientists that enjoys the approval of Washington is a clever way of twisting reality. But it is not plausible. The CIA does not have clean hands, especially when it comes to Iran.
As Richard Silverstein writes, “while the U.S. has denied participating in the sabotage campaign against Iran’s nuclear program, we know of it and approve it. We’ve compartmentalized our efforts so the U.S. puts the squeeze on economically and Israel does it militarily. But this is a coordinated program and we are willing participants in it. Whether or not we planted bombs in Teheran, we are accessories after the fact and share in the culpability for this egregious conduct.”
Both the CIA and Mossad are guilty of state terrorism from New York City to Tehran. Iranian nuclear scientists and American citizens were murdered by the same monsters. That is the truth. And that should not be news to anyone.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t
• 
  

The American people, the Iranian people, and the Israeli people will ultimately pay the price for U.S.-Israeli state terrorism.
Even if intelligent and wise people in the CIA want America to separate itself from Israel, they can’t do it because the crime of 9/11 irreversibly linked the U.S. empire aka the Great Satan with the Zionist serpent in Tel Aviv. Their political fate and strategic success in the Middle East is interlinked. To suggest otherwise ignores the facts.
But that doesn’t mean that America and Israel have no choice but to continue down this destructive and criminal path. There is a better way to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the U.S.-Iranian conflict. But nothing will change for the better in the Middle East until there is regime change in Washington and Tel Aviv.