In uniform

The Pentagon attacks

June 11, 2009 Alexander Golts

The personnel officer of the CIA, and now the chief of the US military department Robert Gates conducted reconnaissance in battle. Three weeks before the American-Russian summit, he made a sensational message. It turns out that now Moscow is almost ready to recognize the existence of a missile threat on the part of Iran, and therefore the correctness of Washington, who was engaged in the creation of a global missile defense system. Moreover, according to Gates, even the possibility of deploying in Russian territory either American radars, or joint centers for the exchange of information on the Russian territory.

If the words of the Minister of Defense corresponded to reality, then we could talk about the radical change in the Russian approach to the issues of the pro. After all, Moscow considered the possibility of its cooperation with the Americans not as an addition, but as an alternative to the deployment of an American global pro. Let me remind you that two years ago, our then president staged a commotion at the eight meeting, suddenly inviting the Americans to jointly use Russian stations warnings about a missile attack in Gabal and under Armavir. True, a little later it turned out - for the sake of this, the Americans should refuse to deploy the Third Positional District of the PRO in Poland and the Czech Republic. In addition, from the very beginning it was clear that the cooperation of the PO would be symbolic in nature-our radars that do not have the possibility of target designations for re-sabrifice missiles are not embedded in the US missile defense architecture.

But the main thing is not even that. As the prominent Russian expert Vladimir Dvorkin quite rightly notes, work on a joint about the actual abandonment of the doctrine of mutual deterrence would turn out. To build a common defense and at the same time proceed from the fact that your partner can cause a sudden blow is pure schizophrenia.

But the fact of the matter is that mutual restraint (or rather a parody of it) is the basis of Russian foreign policy. It is it that allows you to turn negotiations with the United States on the future agreement on strategic offensive weapons into the central issue of Russian-American relations. Only the need for mutual deterrence can explain why Russia is needed - blood from the nose - nuclear parity with the United States. In fact, according to the Kremlin chiefs, the relative equality of nuclear arsenals of the two countries makes Russia equal to the most powerful power of the planet.

And nothing, absolutely nothing in the Russian external and defense policy confirms the words of the American minister. Neither in the Foreign Ministry nor in our Ministry of Defense dared to comment on Gates's statement. The next day, the chief of the strategic missile forces Nikolai Solovtsov told members of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense about the plans for the development of our nuclear potential. At the same time, he said: “Until 2016, high -quality improvement of both the missile systems themselves and the combat control systems of the troops and weapons, primarily in terms of building up the possibilities to overcome the missile defense and increase the survivability of shock weapons.” At the same time, he did not fail to say that all the missile systems available in the Strategic Missile Forces are able to overcome both existing and created missile defense systems.

Currently, only one country in the world creates a missile defense system - this is the United States. And the main task facing the Strategic Missile Forces is to have the ability to overcome this system. What cooperation can there be?

More recently, Moscow demonstrated a frank neglect of the discussion of such cooperation. So, when the head of the Pentagon Missile Defense Agency, Lieutenant General Patrick O'raili, arrived in the capital, negotiations with him, according to my data, were conducted by an officer in the rank of ... Colonel.

Finally, if such a serious turn occurred in Russia's position, it would be reasonable to imagine it as a breakthrough during the visit of Obama.

Gates cannot but know all this. And yet, makes his statement. There may be two explanations. The American side is not satisfied with the way negotiations are underway (and the Kremlin clearly headed for their maximum delay) - and decided to blow up the situation. Indeed, on the eve of the summit, in the center of which there will be new disarmament agreements, Moscow will not be very convenient to repeat the formulas of the nuclear confrontation of the “Cold War” era. There is another explanation. It was not by chance that Gates told the story of how Vladimir Putin, as a president, proved to him, referring to false intelligence, which Iranian missiles do not threaten anyone. Gates, according to his own words, recommended Putin to create a new intelligence. Why did this experienced Gates now remembered how Vladimir Putin was once mistaken once? Is it a hint of Medvedev to abandon the heritage of his predecessor?

Photo by RIA Novosti