Russia threatens to pull out of arms treaty

Russian President Vladimir Putin used his final state-of-the-nation address on Apr. 26 to launch a blistering attack on NATO and the West in a calculated show of political power. With just under a year to go before he is due to step down, he told a gathering of the country's political elite that Russia was continuing its steady rise despite foreign attempts to keep it down. Setting diplomatic niceties aside, he accused NATO of flouting an important Cold War-era arms control treaty, the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) agreement, that limits weapons in Europe. He made no secret of the fact that he was in large part referring to controversial US plans to locate elements of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, calling their decision to acquiesce with Washington "incorrect." He suggested that Russia would now suspend its own compliance with the CFE treaty until such time as NATO countries ratified it and fulfilled its terms. He said: "It's about time our partners made their own concrete contribution to arms reductions... rather than just pay lip service to them." If no progress was made, he warned, Russia would pull out of the treaty altogether. Putin also put the West on notice not to interfere in Russian politics ahead of parliamentary elections in December. He and his inner circle are determined to avoid any signs of what they call "instability"–a euphemism for the kind of bloodless revolution that occurred in neighboring Ukraine in 2004. The UK-based oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who once claimed to have channeled money to Ukraine's pro-West revolutionaries, has already publicly claimed he is planning something similar in his native Russia, prompting the Kremlin to revive an attempt to extradite him. In his speech on Apr. 26, Putin urged him and anyone like him including unnamed "colonial" foreign governments to think again. "There is a growing influx of foreign cash used directly to meddle in our domestic affairs," he told his audience, largely made up of members of parliament and senators. "Not everyone likes the stable, gradual rise of our country. Some want to return to the past to rob the people and the state, to plunder the natural resources, and deprive our country of its political and economic independence." Controversially, he suggested that Russia's self-styled "democratic" opposition was little more than a vehicle for foreign interests. He said: "Democratic slogans are used but the goal is the same: to gain one-sided advantages and personal benefits." Putin classified the problem as one of "political extremism" and called on parliamentarians swiftly to enact new laws to combat the phenomenon. His hard-line views on "democratic opposition" have clearly been conveyed to the police. Two attempts by Russia's enfeebled opposition to stage anti-Kremlin demonstrations in the past month have been cut short by baton-wielding riot police who have attacked protesters. In both cases it was claimed that many of the demonstrators were "extremists," an allegation that Putin's opponents believe is merely a convenient pretext for repression. But his opponents were nowhere to be seen; Putin was preaching to the converted and his one-hour speech was interrupted by applause on no less than 44 occasions. Boasting that Russia was now one of the world's 10 largest economies, he signaled that he would keep his word and step down as president next March, despite enjoying a popularity rating above 70 percent. He gave no hints as to his successor and said defiantly that his own role in Russian politics was not yet exhausted. "The next state-of-the-nation address will be given by another head of state… [but] it would be premature for me to read out my own political will and testament."