"President Bush called President Putin of Russia today to discuss the upcoming Annapolis conference," US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement. (Read content ‘Bush, Putin, discuss upcoming Middle East meeting (AFP)’…)
• INITIALLY SIGNED: Nov. 19, 1990, between NATO and Warsaw Pact nations in an area between Atlantic Ocean and Ural Mountains.
• LIMITED: each bloc to 6,800 combat aircraft, 2,000 attack helicopters, 20,000 tanks, 30,000 armored personnel carriers, and 20,000 artillery guns; eliminated Warsaw Pact’s overwhelming numerical superiority in Central Europe.
• RESTRICTED: basing of military forces near the dividing line to reduce chance of surprise attack; also allowed for inspectors to monitor military maneuvers and verify weaponry destruction.
• AMENDED: Nov.
Meanwhile, the armed forces chief of staff, General Yury Baluyevsky, also confirmed that Russia would suspend adherence to a key Cold War arms treaty on December 12, news agencies reported.
"In violation of previous agreements, certain member countries of the NATO alliance are increasing their resources next to our borders," Putin told a meeting of defence chiefs in Moscow in comments broadcast on state television.
"Russia cannot remain indifferent to the clear muscle-flexing," he said.
The Kremlin leader, who earlier this year threatened to target nuclear missiles at Europe, said he wanted the atomic arsenal put on a higher level of readiness.
"One of the most important tasks remains raising the combat readiness of the strategic nuclear forces.
(Read content ‘Putin warns NATO against border build-up (AFP)’…)
The statement, which came amid simmering tensions between Moscow and the West, reflects the Kremlin’s assertive posture less than two weeks before Russia’s Dec. 2 parliamentary elections.
“In violation of previous agreements, military resources of NATO members are being built up next to our borders.
(Read content ‘Russian president blasts NATO actions (AP)’…)
Putin, speaking to top generals less than two weeks before December 2 parliamentary elections, said the NATO military alliance had built up its forces close to Russia's borders.
"We see that military resources of certain states and members of the NATO alliance are being built up right by our borders and in contravention of previously reached agreements," Putin said in remarks shown on state television.
"We cannot allow ourselves to remain indifferent to the obvious 'muscle-flexing'," Putin said.
He said strategic nuclear forces — which control Russia's long-range nuclear missiles — should be ready "to deliver a swift and adequate response to any aggressor."
Putin, who has hiked military spending substantially over the past eight years, has sought to boost Russia's international clout after the chaos following the fall of the Soviet Union.
Talking tough about Russia's military is immensely popular locally.
(Read content ‘Russia’s Putin slams NATO “muscle-flexing” (Reuters)’…)
The comments by Patriarch Alexy II, made at a Kremlin meeting with President Vladimir Putin, come as concerns increase over the growing influence of the church on government policy.
Russia needs to establish of a public council to oversee the “morality” of the mass media, Alexy II said.
“Many television and radio programs shows the permissibility of vicious behavior and it makes one contemplate the moral criteria of what mass media are allowed to do,” he said.
“Our society needs a public council that will assume appropriate regulating functions,” he said.
He spoke after a ceremony in which a government museum turned over to church officials a piece of cloth that the Orthodox faithful believe was part of a robe worn by Jesus Christ.
Some analysts say the meeting between Putin and patriarch was part of the continuing effort by the Kremlin to encourage religious Russians to vote in the Dec.
(Read content ‘Russian patriarch: Media council needed (AP)’…)
The two sides reached a mutual understanding that Russia would dispose of 37.5 tons (34 tons) of plutonium from its weapons program by converting it into mixed oxide fuel that would be used to generate electricity. The United States would dispose of an equal amount of plutonium under the agreement.
"Along with the U.S.
(Read content ‘U.S., Russia agree on plutonium disposal plan (Reuters)’…)
Police detained Storchak, Russia's top Paris Club debt negotiator, on Thursday along with Viktor Zakharov, head of the firm Sodexim, and the chairman of Moscow's Interregional Investment Bank (MIB), Vadim Volkov.
They have not been formally charged with any crime.
But the investigation committee at the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement the three men were suspected of "having created an organized group to embezzle budget funds under the pretext of covering expenses for Sodexim."
"The sum in question is $43.4 million."
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, a close associate of Storchak, said on Sunday he did not understand the arrest of his deputy, who oversees a $148 billion oil stabilization fund that collects revenues from Russia's booming oil exports.
But the investigation committee said Storchak had been detained to prevent the destruction of evidence.
"The investigation possesses evidence that if Storchak had been left a free man, he could escape the investigation and the trial, engage in criminal activities, threaten witnesses…
(Read content ‘Russian official suspected of $43 mln fraud (Reuters)’…)
United Russia's programme is called "The Putin plan," the popular Russian president is running as No. 1 on the party's election slate, and his name and photographs are plastered over its campaign literature.
But the Putin card is more than just a vote-grabbing ploy.
(Read content ‘Putin seeks to map Russia’s future with election (Reuters)’…)
The St. Vincent and Grenadines-registered Kasper-1 timber carrier was en route from Russia’s far eastern port of Nakhodka to China when it sank in a storm, said Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov.
Its crew of 36 boarded inflatable rafts.
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