U.S. may provide Russia with details of European missile shield

Πηγή: Panarmenian
Nov 21 2011

PanARMENIAN.Net - The United States is ready to provide Russia with technical specifics of interceptor missiles of the European missile defense system, Russia's Kommersant daily said on Monday, November 21, citing U.S. sources.

According to RIA Novosti, the newspaper said Russian specialists were invited to take part in tests of RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) and visit the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) headquarters at the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado.

"During the consultations [U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control Ellen] Tauscher said Washington was ready to provide information about the missile's speed after it uses up all of its fuel. This information, referred to as burnout velocity (VBO) in international documents, helps to determine how to target it," Kommersant said.

In October, Moscow's NATO envoy Dmitry Rogozin said Russian talks with the United States on missile defense had hit a dead end.

The Kremlin says the U.S. expanding anti-missile system in Europe is a potential threat to Russian nuclear arsenal, while Washington tries to convince Moscow that the system poses no threat to Russia and is needed to protect against missiles that could be fired by countries with smaller arsenals such as Iran.

The missile shield dispute between Russia and the U.S. has undermined efforts to build on improvements in relations between the former Cold War foes and is intensified by Russia's uncertainty of U.S. policy after the November 2012 presidential elections.

Russia says U.S. Afghan policy stokes AIDS problem

Πηγή: trust
By Reuters
Oct 10 2011


MOSCOW, Oct 10 (Reuters) - The United States is aggravating the HIV/AIDS problem in Russia and the West by refusing to use its forces to destroy opium crops in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.

Lavrov made Russia's persistent case for poppy crop eradication by U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan at a conference on communicable diseases in the eastern Europe and Central Asia region, where AIDS is a growing problem.

"It is hard for us to understand why our American partners don't want the International Security Assistance Force to do this," he said. "This issue is crucial to the fight against the drug threat and, consequently, the spread of HIV/AIDS."

Afghanistan is the world's biggest producer of poppies used to make opium, the key ingredient in the production of heroin. Russia is the largest per capita consumer of the drug and faces an HIV/AIDS epidemic that is spreading from dirty needles.

"The tragedy of the situation lies in the fact that in Europe, young people ... are getting this disease because of the spread of drugs," Lavrov said, adding that "we must fight not only the use but also the spread of drugs."

Russia, which fought a decade-long war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, is supporting the Western military campaign in Afghanistan by providing transit routes for personnel and supplies.

It says the United States made a big mistake when it reversed its anti-drug strategy in 2009 by phasing out crop eradication efforts to focus instead on intercepting drugs and hunting production operations and drug lords.

The Unites States said it made the change because drug crop eradication was not damaging the Taliban insurgency but was putting farmers out of work, sowing resentment against foreign intervention.

Russia says it opposes a long-term Western military presence in Afghanistan, but has also expressed fears that the spread of drugs and Islamist militancy toward its borders could worsen if NATO forces leave without first ensuring stability.