Putin: US wants to dominate world

Vladimir Putin delivered the strongest attack of his seven-year Russian presidency at the US on Feb. 10, blaming it for fanning conflicts across the world through the unilateral use of "hyper-force." He said the United States was seeking to impose its standards on other nations, triggering new arms races and the spread of nuclear weapons and threatening Russia through new missile shield programs. The tirade indicated that the Kremlin is gearing up for confrontation with the US. He did not have a good word to say about Washington's policies. In the blistering assault, Putin told a security conference in Munich that the US was destroying the international system and seeking to eliminate nuclear deterrence through the uncontained use of its power. "One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way," he told dozens of Western ministers and policy-makers, including US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Senator John McCain. "This is very dangerous. Nobody feels secure any more because nobody can hide behind international law," Putin said. "This is nourishing an arms race with countries seeking to obtain nuclear weapons.... We're witnessing the untrammeled use of the military in international affairs…. Why is it necessary to bomb and to shoot at every opportunity?" He reserved his bitterest complaints, however, for the US drive to expand NATO into former Soviet Eastern Europe and for the plans to deploy parts of the missile shield in central Europe. "Why do you need to move your military infrastructure to our borders?" he asked. The Russian leader accused Washington of plotting to evade its commitments to cut nuclear arsenals– already made through US-Russian arms treaties–and raged against the Pentagon's plans to site parts of its missile shield project in Poland and the Czech Republic. "I don't want to suspect anyone of aggressiveness," said Putin. "But if the anti-missile defense is not targeted at us, then our new missiles will not be directed at you." Putin joked that he worried the United States was "hiding extra warheads under the pillow" despite its treaties with Moscow to reduce strategic nuclear stockpiles. And he indicated obliquely that the new Russian ballistic missile, known as the Topol-M, was being developed at least in part in response to US efforts to field missile defenses. He expressed alarm that the United States' missile deployment would upset a system of mutual fear that kept the nuclear peace throughout the cold war. "That means the balance will be upset, completely upset," he said. Putin called on the West to resist pushing Russia to be more democratic and more respectful of human rights. "Russia is constantly being taught democracy, and the people who try to teach it don't want to learn it themselves," he said. Putin accused the United States of making the world a more dangerous place by pursuing policies aimed at subjecting it to "one single master." Attacking the concept of a "unipolar" world in which the United States was the sole superpower, he said: "What is a unipolar world? No matter how we beautify this term it means one single center of power, one single center of force and one single master."Putin warned that the power amassed by any nation that assumes this ultimate global role "destroys it from within." "It has nothing in common with democracy, of course," he added. "Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations–military force." Unilateral US military actions, which he termed "illegitimate," also "have not been able to resolve any matters at all," and, he said, have created only more instability and danger. "They bring us to the abyss of one conflict after another," he said. "Political solutions are becoming impossible." He did offer at least two significant and conciliatory statements to the United States. President Bush "is a decent man, and one can do business with him," he said. From their meetings and discussions, Putin said, he has heard the US president say, "I assume Russia and the United States will never be enemies, and I agree." Putin ended his critique of the post-Cold War world by attacking the West's view of international relations. Stability and economic justice, he said, should be "not only for the chosen ones, but for everybody." Putin's spokesperson Dimitry Peskov said the speech was "not about confrontation, it's an invitation to think." "Until we get rid of unilateralism in international affairs, until we exclude the possibility of imposing one country's views on others, we will not have stability," he said.