Putin Says U.S. Policy Leads WMD Proliferation

Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at the Bush administration Saturday, charging that U.S. foreign policy is encouraging the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (see GSN, Feb. 1).

Speaking at a Munich conference attended by many international defense ministers, Putin delivered an unusually blunt address.

“This conference’s structure allows me to avoid excessive politeness and the need to speak in roundabout, pleasant but empty diplomatic terms,” he began.  “This conference’s format will allow me to say what I really think about international security problems.”

Putin then criticized U.S. military activities abroad, saying they were possible only in the absence of the balancing power the Soviet Union enjoyed during the Cold War.

“Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force — military force — in international relations, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts,” he said.  “One state and, of course, first and foremost the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way.”

U.S. power, however, was not leading to greater international security, Putin said.

“The force’s dominance inevitably encourages a number of countries to acquire weapons of mass destruction.  Moreover, significantly new threats — though they were also well-known before — have appeared, and today threats such as terrorism have taken on a global character,” he said.

Military action is not necessary to address international security threats, Putin said, citing the peaceful demise of the Soviet Union.

“Did not our country have a peaceful transition to democracy?  Indeed, we witnessed a peaceful transformation of the Soviet regime — a peaceful transformation!  And what a regime!  With what a number of weapons, including nuclear weapons!” he said.  “Why should we start bombing and shooting now at every available opportunity?”

Putin urged the United States to pursue nuclear disarmament more actively, warning that failure to do so would create growing international tensions.

“The potential danger of the destabilization of international relations is connected with obvious stagnation in the disarmament issue,” he told the conference.

He reaffirmed Russia’s commitment to the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, in which Washington and Moscow agreed to cut the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to less than 2,200 each (see GSN, Dec. 7, 2006).  Putin did, however, lament the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, under which the United States and Soviet Union destroyed an entire class of nuclear missiles (see GSN, Feb. 8).  Putin complained that other nations were building just such missiles while Russia was bound to abstain from having them.

Putin also criticized U.S. plans to deploy missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic (see GSN, Feb. 1).

“Plans to expand certain elements of the antimissile defense system to Europe cannot help but disturb us,” he said. “Who needs the next step of what would be, in this case, an inevitable arms race?”

“Missile weapons with a range of about five to eight thousand kilometers that really pose a threat to Europe do not exist in any of the so-called problem countries.  And in the near future and prospects, this will not happen and is not even foreseeable,” he added.  “And any hypothetical launch of, for example, a North Korean rocket to American territory through Western Europe obviously contradicts the laws of ballistics.  As we say in Russia, it would be like using the right hand to reach the left ear.”

The only area of agreement Putin found between Washington and Moscow was over plans to create an international nuclear fuel supply system that would keep developing nations from seeking their own ability to produce materials that could be used for nuclear power plant fuel or nuclear weapons (see GSN, Feb. 8).

“The latest initiatives put forward by American President George W. Bush are in conformity with the Russian proposals,” he said.  “It is precisely our countries, with leading nuclear and missile capabilities, that must act as leaders in developing new, stricter nonproliferation measures. Russia is ready for such work.  We are engaged in consultations with our American friends.”

“In general, we should talk about establishing a whole system of political incentives and economic stimuli whereby it would not be in states’ interests to establish their own capabilities in the nuclear fuel cycle but they would still have the opportunity to develop nuclear energy and strengthen their energy capabilities” (Transcript/Washington Post, Feb. 10).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.