DAR AL HARB - RUSSIA / NEO-SOVIETS: PUTIN, EX-KGB, TAKES ANOTHER (3RD) ANTI-U.S. STANCE

3RD Putin's anti-US stance spurs fear of Cold War-style rift
By Shada Islam and Leon Mangasarian,

Munich- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday slammed US policies on missile defence, NATO enlargement and use of military force, spurring fears Washington and Moscow were headed towards a new Cold War-style rift. Putin, in a tough-worded speech to the Munich Security Conference, warned that a US-led "unipolar world" was unacceptable and had led to more wars and conflict across the globe.

"Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper-use of military force in international relations," Putin said in one of his strongest-ever criticisms of the US.

He warned that the growing sense of insecurity caused by US policies was fuelling a drive in many countries to produce weapons of mass destruction.

Putin said Moscow did not need lessons in democracy from "people who did not practise it themselves."

The annual security conference is a top global forum on defence issues. This year's event is being attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as well as numerous foreign and defence ministers.

Putin's unexpectedly harsh tone prompted an immediate reaction from Scheffer who rejected the remarks as "disappointing and unhelpful."

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Josef Joffe, the influential editor of the German newspaper Die Zeit, reacted to Putin's speech by saying he hoped historians would not look at the Munich meeting as "the start of another Cold War."

Putin set a combative tone in the first few minutes of his address by warning the new unipolar world led by the US was far less secure than the old balance of power between the US and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.

"This is very dangerous ... nobody feels secure any more," Putin said.

The Russian president sharply criticized the planned deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems by the US - to be stationed in Poland and the Czech Republic.

He said Russian military planners assumed US anti-missile forces could at some point "neutralize" the deterrence threat posed by Moscow's nuclear missiles.

"The balance will be upset," Putin said, adding that the US would then have "a feeling of complete security" which would give it a free hand to impose its will in local and global conflicts.

The US in 2002 withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty which was signed in 1972 between the US and the former Soviet Union. Washington said this was necessary in order to build anti-missile systems to protect the US from so-called "rogue states."

Putin vowed that Moscow would develop cheaper, asymmetrical systems to overcome any US anti-ballistic missile system.

He was scathing about NATO enlargement into former parts of the Soviet bloc. "NATO expansion is a serious factor which reduces the level of mutual trust," said Putin, adding, "We have the right to ask against whom is this aimed?"

The Russian president said he failed to understand the point of expanding NATO infrastructure toward his country when the real global threat was posed by terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

NATO chief Scheffer countered, however, that the alliance's expansion was about stabilizing the region. "Who can be worried that democracy and rule of law is coming closer to somebody's borders?" asked Scheffer.

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Putin admitted concern over Iran's nuclear programme and said he did not understand why Tehran had not responded constructively to international concerns.

But he defended Russia's delivery of air defence systems to Iran, saying: "We do not want Iran to feel cornered in a hostile environment."


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1) 3RD Putin's anti-US stance spurs fear of Cold War-style rift