 Putin: No basis for cold war
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-13 08:21 Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned the West on Thursday against starting an arms race in Europe by stationing a US missile defense shield near Russia's borders and said there was no basis for a new Cold War. Putin, who has taken a robust stance on Russia's conflict with Georgia over the South Ossetia region, blamed Washington rather than Moscow for resurrecting Soviet-style rhetoric. "Today there are no ideological contradictions. There is no basis for a Cold War," Putin told a group of reporters at a three-hour lunch briefing at his retreat in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. "There is no basis for mutual animosity ... Russia has no imperialist ambitions," he said. Russia was criticized by the United States and European governments for sending troops into Georgia last month and then recognizing the two breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states. Some Western leaders accused Moscow of using Soviet-style tactics in dealing with its neighbor over South Ossetia. Others feared Moscow might take similar steps to reassert its influence over other countries it long dominated in the Soviet Union. US Vice President Dick Cheney charged Moscow earlier this month with using intimidation and "brute force". "There is no more Soviet threat but they are trying to resurrect it," Putin said. He questioned criticism of Russia for crushing Georgia's bid to retake South Ossetia by force, which prompted concern over energy security in the region and rattled Russian markets with shares losing more than 40 percent of their value since May. "What did you expect us to do? Respond with a catapult? ... We punched the aggressor in the face. Did you expect us to wipe the bloody snot off our faces and bow our heads?" he said. Georgia's NATO membership President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday NATO's promise to extend membership to Georgia was unjust, humiliating and intolerable to Russia. Likening Georgia's assault on South Ossetia to the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Medvedev said he would have acted equally decisively in sending in Russian forces, even if Tbilisi already had a firm path to NATO entry. By extending a promise of future membership to Georgia and Ukraine, NATO had illustrated a willingness to take in two malfunctioning states simply to get closer to Russia's borders. Medvedev said. Georgian membership would be a destabilising factor, both for the Western military alliance and for the volatile Caucasus region, Medvedev said in the annual meeting of the Valdai Club, which groups Russia experts. Respect for international law, a more effective global security system and a shift away from US dominance of international diplomacy were among the goals he listed. He balanced his remarks by saying he did not believe the Caucasus crisis had caused a faultline in relations between Russia and the West, which would lead to another long period of confrontation. Agencies (China Daily 09/13/2008 page11) |
