Russia and the U.S. still have some major disagreements on the missile defense issue, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Friday. The planned placement of U.S. missile defense elements in Eastern Europe, close to the Russian borders, remains a bone of contention in bilateral relations. "The principal disagreement is that they [the U.S.] tell us: "our missile defense program is not aimed against you," while we say: "no, according to our calculations it actually is," the minister said during his visit to the U.S. He said the Russian side proposed the U.S. to jointly evaluate present missile threats. "Let's analyze them together and find out where they come from. After that we will be able to decide on how to counteract these threats and is it really necessary to deploy missile defense elements in the regions where [the deployment] is currently planned. Maybe, some other locations are possible," Serdyukov said 

September 17, 2010   Why NATO doesn’t want Russia’s help in fighting drugs

The Afghan operation is undoubtedly one of NATO’s priorities – but there is one interesting peculiarity. In words, NATO welcomes Russia’s help in fighting drug production in Afghanistan, but in fact all concrete Russian proposals are politely declined. NATO’s leaders even justify a sharp increase of Afghan drugs’ flow by political considerations. The Director of the Russian Institute of political research Sergey Markov says:“NATO doesn’t really fight Afghan drugs production. They are afraid that if they destroy Afghan poppy fields, Afghans will hate the Americans and their allies even more. Moreover, Afghan drug barons and terrorist leaders are often the same people, and NATO commanders do not want to irritate them. So they seem to have found a sort of compromise." 

September 16, 2010   Russian emergencies chief to share forest fire experience at NATO summit

 NATO has invited the head of Russia's Emergencies Ministery to share his experiences on extinguishing forest fires at a seminar in Brussels, the deputy minister said on Wednesday. "NATO has invited Russian Emergencies Minister Sergey Shoigu to speak at a seminar in Brussels to share his experience of extinguishing large-scale forest fires," Ruslan Tsalikov said. He said that since Russia's forest fires this summer, many states had expressed interest in learning from Russia's experience. "After the Russian fires, China decided it also needed to create an emergencies body similar to the Russian emergencies ministry," Tsalikov said. Tsalikov said Russia managed to successfully overcome the disaster, as testified by numerous western media reports and response of foreing experts 

September 16, 2010   Arctic does not need NATO presence - Lavrov

NATO will make a mistake if it starts pointing out who and how should solve the problems of the Arctic region, said the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after talks with his Canadian counterpart Lawrence Cannon in Moscow. Russia sees no point in NATO’s participation in solving this problem. Lavrov stressed that the Arctic countries – Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and the USA – will find a solution with the help of political means on the basis of international law. The Russian and Canadian Foreign Ministers emphasized that militarisation of the Arctic is out of the question 

September 15, 2010   NATO not against Russian military base in Armenia

NATO does not object to the presence of a Russian military base in Armenia, the alliance's special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia said on Wednesday. "Armenia is a CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization] member and Russia's strategic partner," Robert Simmons told journalists in Yerevan. "The presence of the Russian base on Armenia's territory accounts for this factor." Armenia has always expressed a readiness to develop cooperation with NATO, Simmons said. "So no imbalance is observed; moreover, NATO is on good terms with Russia as well," he added. Russia and Armenia signed a deal in August extending the term of a 1995 bilateral treaty on the Russian 102nd Military Base at Gyumri, northwestern Armenia, from 25 to 49 years. The base, which is under the command of Russia's North Caucasus Military District, is part of the CIS integrated air defense system 

September 10, 2010   Russia's envoy to NATO requests details on German ship hijacking

Russia's envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin has requested Russian military officials from NATO's Allied Command Europe to provide details about an attack by pirates on a German containership in the Gulf of Aden. Rogozin neither confirmed nor denied the information that there were Russian citizens on board the vessel. According to media reports, the ship's crew also includes six Filipinos, two Ukrainians, one Pole and one Bulgarian 

September 1, 2010   NATO stuck between past and future – Lavrov ('Russia Today')

On September 1, when the academic year begins, Lavrov addressed Russia’s future diplomats – students of the Moscow State University of Foreign Relations (MGIMO). “We expect more clarity from our partners in NATO. I think this organization has been balancing between the past and the future far too long,” he said. The minister mentioned discussions about NATO’s new Strategic Concept, which is to replace the 1999 concept, as an example of such duality. Lavrov agreed with analysts that the report “can hardly be considered a strategic response to Russia’s security initiatives" 

August 24, 2010   The Facts of Violation by the United States of its Obligations in the Sphere of Nonproliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Arms Control

Artificial linkage the Agreement on Adaptation has not yet been ratified by the United States and other NATO member countries. Moreover, the Rome Declaration by Heads of State and Government of Russia and NATO “Russia-NATO Relations: A New Quality” (2002) is likewise not observed. Its “Arms Control and Confidence-Building Measures” section reads that the Parties “will work cooperatively toward ratification by all the States Parties and entry into force of the Agreement on Adaptation of the CFE Treaty, which would permit accession by non-CFE states.” 

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