Putin: `Arms race isn't over yet..'

Ah, yes..our dear friend and `ally' Vladimir Putin, the guy whose soul Dubbya claimed he could see into....

Russian President Vladimir Putin made his seventh `state of the nation' speech yesterday, and he had some interesting things to say, especially in view of Russia's alliance withIran against the West.

"It is premature to speak of the end of the arms race," said Putin, who emphasized that that U.S. defense spending is 25 times higher than Russia's and said his country needs to catch up.

"Their house is their fortress? Well done," he said. "But it means that we must build our house strongly, reliably, because we see what is going on in the world."

"We must always be ready to counter any attempts to pressure Russia in order to strengthen positions at our expense," he continued. "The stronger our military is, the less temptation there will be to exert such pressure on us."

What's more, ol' Vlad said that Russia's military would work to strengthen both its nuclear deterrent and its conventional forces but without repeating "the mistakes of the Soviet Union and of the Cold War" by bankrupting the country's resources.

In other words, they've learned from what Reagan did to them....and the Russian bear is feeling its imperialist tendencies again. And, they now have a few rubles to burn, thanks to the uptick in oil prices and those lucrative arms and nuclear deals with the mullahs in Iran.

According to Putin's speech, the Russians will soon commission two nuclear submarines equipped with the first new intercontinental ballistic missiles developed in Russia since the collapse of the Soviets, and that the land-based Red Army will soon receive their first unit of mobile Topol-M missiles.

Putin made a point of saying that the new missiles and warheads would be able to change direction in flight, foiling advanced defense systems such as the one being developed by the United States.

In those very words.

Putin also addressed criticism from the US, noticeably from VP Cheney after Russia attempted to cut off gas deliveries to Europe in a midwinter pricing dispute with Ukraine. Cheney also verbally slapped the Russians by accusing them of backsliding on democratic reform (LOL) and using Russia's vast energy resources as "intimidation and blackmail" against its neighbors.

Putin's reply was interesting: "Where does the whole pathos about the need to struggle for democracy and human rights disappear to, when the talk is of ensuring one's own interests?"

"Then it seems everything is possible. There are no limits at all," he said. Invoking a Russian proverb, he added: "As the saying goes, comrade wolf knows whom to eat, and he eats without listening to others."


Notice the language.

Obviously, Putin was sending a signal to the West and particularly to the USA that Russia is coming back as a global power, with new allies like Iran in the Middle East that Russia will pursue an aggressive foreign policy...and that Putin considers the US his major opponent.

In other words, like Yogi Berra once famously said, it's deju vu all over again.

The Russians hate us for defeating them and depriving them of their colonial empire (and hate Israel as well, by the way, for being part of that defeat and singlehandedly kicking them out of the Middle East). They have never forgiven us for it and never will, as long as the old imperialist streak still survives in the Russian psyche.

Along with his failure to deal decisively with Saddam Hussein after the First Gulf War, the failure to disarm and eliminate Russia's nuclear arsenal as a condition for all that financial aid we gave them is something that will rest on the shoulders of the legacy of the first president Bush.

This speech and its hard line has gone almost unnoticed in the West. But look for Russia, in conjuction with its new ally Iran to be an opponent of ours in the future.

Vladimir Putin just put us on notice.

The ironic part is that Russia is a dying nation demographically and it's one chance of real survival would be to align with the West against resurgent Islam. Putin will probably not realize that until it's too late.