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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Russia to build missile defence shield |
| 2008-09-26 |
| Russia is to build new space and missile defence shields and put its armed forces on permanent combat alert, President Medvedev announced today. In a sharp escalation of military rhetoric, Mr Medvedev ordered a wholesale renovation of Russia's nuclear deterrence and told military chiefs to draw up plans to reorganise the armed forces by December. He said that Russia must modernise its nuclear defences within eight years, including the creation of a "system of air and space defence". The announcement puts Russia in a new arms race with the United States, which has infuriated the Kremlin by seeking to establish an anti-missile shield in eastern Europe. The US argues that the shield is aimed at rogue states such as Iran, but Russia is convinced that its own security is threatened. Some Race. But the last one worked out well for them so they should give it another go. Mr Medvedev told military commanders that "all combat formations must be upgraded to the permanent readiness category" by 2020. He added that Russia would begin "mass production of warships, primarily nuclear cruisers carrying cruise missiles and multi-purpose submarines". |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #11 Not a bad idea. |
| Posted by: General_Comment 2008-09-26 21:15 |
| #10 Wid the new US truuubles vee China ally Pakistan, + budding pan-Nation regional Islamist truuubles elsewhere, it remains to be seen iff Russ can't meet its 2020 deadline. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-09-26 19:59 |
| #9 The Russkies are too dense to figure out that if they trashed the Nkors and the Iranians, the Americans wouldn't believe there is a need for a limited ABM system and would gut the program. Instead they do as they do cause a scorpion can't change its behavior. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-09-26 19:11 |
| #8 Put one on a ship somewhere at sea and let it drift into Russian waters.... where they could STEAL it. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-09-26 18:30 |
| #7 It might be a good idea for the US to help. It was offered. In the end, they turned it down. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-09-26 18:03 |
| #6 "Put Rove on it, he's a sneaky little shit." Not that there's anything wrong with that.... ;-p |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-09-26 17:58 |
| #5 Lets use the chinese fear factor against the ruskies. Put Rove on it, he's a sneaky little shit. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-09-26 17:55 |
| #4 We'll be more certain about that when they break ground on the sites. Then we can help with ver 2.0. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-09-26 17:44 |
| #3 It might be a good idea for the US to help. Hear me out. It might help build bridges and calm the situation down. Especially as the ruskies secretly worry about the chinese bombs more than the US ones. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2008-09-26 17:39 |
| #2 Avoid the costly R&D tail, BUY OUR SHIELDS! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-09-26 17:08 |
| #1 A missile defense shield? Grand, sounds like a plan. Good luck with that, Premier Sockpuppet. If Russia ever turns into a country which can pull off a technical feat like a missile defense shield that can actually protect them from US cruise missiles, then I'm willing to wager that they'll be the sort of country we don't need to fire cruise missiles at. Kind of like China, actually. [knock on wood, hope they don't prove me wrong by invading Taiwan next week. It's been that kind of month.] |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2008-09-26 16:25 |