Russia claims no US nuclear deal in Copenhagen

This deal with Russia was one of the more positive aspects of Obama's foreign policy but even it seems to somewhat bogged down. However, it would seem that the issues are primarily technical so presumably they will be worked out eventually in the new year. THis is from presstv.



Russia rules out nuclear deal with US in Copenhagen

The START deal, which led to deep cuts in nuclear arsenals on both the US and Russia, expired on December 5, 2008.
Russia and the US will not manage to sign a nuclear arms reduction treaty by the end of the year, an informed source in Moscow says.

The report comes as Russia has clarified that any agreement on the issue will not be signed between the two countries' leaders on the sidelines of a UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen.

"The number of details that need to be agreed is such that it's physically impossible to do it all in the time left until the end of the year," Interfax quoted the Russian source as saying, AFP reported.

"Such delays shouldn't be dramatized, since Moscow and Washington are both equally keen on constructive [dialogue] and on coming up with a document that suits both sides," the source added.

The US President, Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev agreed in April to sign a new nuclear deal in order to expand the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) signed by former US president George H.W. Bush and then Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev.

The treaty, which led to deep cuts in nuclear arsenals on both sides, expired on December 5, 2008.

Later in July 2009, the two leaders agreed to decrease the number of their nuclear warheads between 1,500 and 1,675 within seven years.

The documents "may be ready for signing in January next year," the source noted.

The report comes a day after a US official told reporters on condition of anonymity that Washington would not have a replacement treaty on nuclear-arms cuts in place by the end of the year.

US officials, he said, "expect that the START talks are powering right through the weekend, they're going to go right up to Christmas [then] breaking for the holidays and coming back in January.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused the US of slowing down the nuclear talks, saying the agreement would not be signed on the sidelines of the Copenhagen summit.

"It's highly unlikely to happen in Copenhagen," Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow. "We still have a big workload — of a purely technical character — facing us."

"In the past couple of days we have noted a slowdown in the positions of the US negotiators in Geneva. They explain this by the need to receive additional instructions. But our team is ready for work," he added.

Russian military chief wants new treaty with US

Arms control rarely is a subject in US political discourse unless it is a matter of controlling someone elses arms such as those inherently evil regimes of North Korea and Iran! The Angelic Eagle has no need to trim its talons. It will be interesting if Obama welcomes this overture from Russia.


11/12/2008 Moscow News №49 2008
Russian military chief wants new treaty with US

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's top military officer called for new arms control talks with the United States on Wednesday, as the Kremlin seeks to engage President-elect Barack Obama's administration.
With two major conventional and strategic treaties in limbo for years, Gen. Nikolai Makarov presented what appeared to be Moscow's most detailed wish list to date for talks with Washington.
He urged the U.S. to negotiate a new treaty to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty before it expires in a year.
The START I pact was signed by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and President George H.W. Bush and called on each country to cut its nuclear warhead stocks by at least one-quarter to about 6,000.
A second deal - the so-called Treaty of Moscow - was signed in 2002 and called for cutting each country's nuclear arsenal further to 1,700-2,200 warheads by 2012. The document was closely based on START I rules and its verification procedures.
Makarov said a new treaty should specify limits for all kinds of nuclear weapons and should outline control and verification procedures. It should also contain guarantees that stockpiled nuclear warheads cannot be quickly returned to combat duty, he said.
Both Russia and the United States want a successor deal, but progress has been hampered by strained relations over U.S. missile defense plans and Russia's war in Georgia.
Rose Gottemoeller, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center think-tank, said that Makarov had repeated some of Moscow's long-held demands, apparently reflecting a desire to engage with the new U.S. administration.
"Prospects are quite good that a new agreement can be reached," she said. "The new administration in Washington realizes that we have a clock ticking, that START I will go out of force in December 2009, and so basically the United States and Russia have a deadline, a very firm deadline."
Moscow suspended its observance of another Cold War-era arms pact last year - the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty limiting the deployment of aircraft, tanks and other heavy non-nuclear weapons on the continent.
Russia said it took the step because NATO countries had not ratified a 1999 revised version. The United States and other NATO members said they refused because Moscow should first withdraw forces from Georgia and the Moldovan separatist region of Trans-Dniester.
Makarov said Moscow might return to the CFE treaty if NATO accepted lower limits on weapons and abandon the so-called "flank" restrictions, limiting troops and weapons deployment in Russia's southern and northwestern regions.
He said that all NATO members, including the ex-Soviet Baltic nations, must accept a modified CFE treaty.
Makarov also said that Russia will keep its arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons, which he said were necessary to counter a massive NATO advantage in conventional weapons.