#9
From: "Jason Ryan" <Jason.A.Ryan@abc.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2001
Subject: US-Russia talks
Mr. Johnson,
I thought this was an interesting article. some of the info is kind of old but the news is sources saying "that preparations for the new round of talks with the United States have been different this time. Experts in charge of documents were instructed to play along with the Americans, instead of the usual orders to try to outmaneuver them."
Cheers
Jason Ryan
Associate Producer
ABC News
(202)222-7114
Vremya Novostei, November 9, 2001, p. 1
BYLINE: Yuri Golotyuk
President Vladimir Putin met with upper echelons of the military on Thursday
- Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin, and Senior Chief of the General Staff Yuri Baluyevsky. According to the PR department, the president and the top brass discussed strategic arms reduction. The same subject was discussed by Putin and President George W. Bush in a telephone conversation yesterday. The complete absence of any details about either conversation is understandable. With the Russian-American summit approaching, Moscow and Washington must be carefully preparing the "surprise" which will be presented to the rest of the world. High-ranking military sources say that preparations for the new round of talks with the United States have been different this time. Experts in charge of documents were instructed to play along with the Americans, instead of the usual orders to try to outmaneuver them. According to what information is available at this point, a similar decision has been made across the ocean as well.
Bush intends to "reduce nuclear arsenals considerably" but refuses to elaborate, pending his meeting with Putin. As a rule, at such international meetings each side tries to present its position in the best possible light.
In theory, Moscow and Washington could continue this stunning game of "abatement of international tension" and "mutual abatement of nuclear threat" ad infinitum, especially since both have learned the rules of the game. According to these rules, Washington should be presenting the decommissioning of 50 Peacekeeper missiles, each with 10 warheads, as a sure symbol of its peaceful intentions. Moscow, in its turn, could loudly announce its adherence to all existing disarmament accords, from the 1972 ABM treaty to START II to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. In addition, the Kremlin may once again propose a reduction of the general level of nuclear weapons, to 1,500 warheads per side. Officially, that would have been true. In fact, however, both sides would have been telling lies. The Americans are dismantling their Peacekeepers within the framework of the strategic forces reorganization and because the ICBMs are ineffective and costly. Russia is dismantling its missiles because it can no longer afford them.
This time, however, neither Moscow nor Washington use the traditional methods of propaganda and counterpropaganda. Perhaps, a new type of relations is what they are truly after. "At the meeting, the residents will discuss new political approaches to existence itself of Russian and American ballistic missiles aimed at one another," sources say. At first sight, this is impossible in principle but certain "leaks" from the Kremlin and the White House do show attempts are at least being made. In an interview with the ABC, Putin offered the United States a way out of the tight corner negotiations over anti-ballistic missile defense have been driven to. He said the United States might try to build something like the missile defense system around Moscow. If Putin has any interesting suggestions concerning the defense initiative, Bush will listen to them, the US president said yesterday
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