Russia Pulls Out of Armed Forces Treaty

from the July 31, 2007 eNews issue

Russia has announced that it is withdrawing from a key treaty regulating conventional armed forces in Europe. Russia has also threatened to pull out of its 1987 treaty with the United States banning intermediate range nuclear forces. Just days after this announcement Royal Air Force fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian strategic bombers heading for British airspace - further complicating the already strained relationship between the two countries.

The two Tu-95 Russian "Bear" bombers were dispatched from a base on the Kola Peninsula in the Arctic Circle. According to a spokesman for the Royal Air Force, Russian military aircraft based near the northern port city of Murmansk fly patrols off the Norwegian coast regularly, but it is highly unusual for them to stray as far south as Scotland. The two bombers turned back just before reaching British airspace. Two Norwegian F-16 fighter jets as well as two British Tornado aircrafts intercepted the bombers. Some analysts believe the incident was a deliberate act, initiated by Russian authorities to provoke the British government. The Russian government officials responded by saying that the two bombers were part of a training exercise for long-distance flight crews - while emphasizing that the planes did not stray from international airspace.

Relations between Russia and the UK have been growing tense in recent months following the high-profile assassination of a former FSB agent on British soil. After Russian authorities refused to extradite the key suspect in the case, the British government announced that four Russian diplomats would be expelled from the UK (all of which are suspected spies).

The dispute between the two countries is escalating rapidly, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman announced last week that Russia would no longer cooperate with Britain in combating terrorism. Russia has also threatened a mass expulsion of British diplomats - according to news reports the Kremlin is contemplating throwing out as many as 84 of the 90 diplomats working at the British embassy in Moscow.

The row between Russia and the UK comes as Russia's diplomatic relations with the US and Europe are already tense. At the center of the dispute is the planned deployment of a US-backed anti-missile system in Europe. The US claims it wants to place interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar site the Czech Republic to protect against attacks from nations such as Iran and North Korea. However Moscow believes the shield's true purpose is to undermine Russia's nuclear deterrent.

Russian weapons sales have increased significantly in recent years. Russia's arms exports totaled a record breaking 8 billion dollars last year, and those numbers are expected to continue to climb even higher in 2007. Russian defense spending has been rising steadily as well, with the help of high energy prices and oil revenues. Russia has implemented an ambitious plan to update and expand its military. Russia is planning to buy new intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear submarines and possibly aircraft carriers. The Russian military will deploy 17 new inter-continental ballistic missiles this year. The missile purchases are part of a 189 billion dollar weapons modernization program.

The political friction building between Russian and the Western World has raised speculation that we could once again be plunged into a Cold War scenario. However experts fear that such a scenario would bring with it a whole new set of rules. They warn that the world we live in today is more unstable an unpredictable than ever before.