Russia to increase military might and spy efforts
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he intended to strengthen Russias military capacity and to step up spying abroad in response to plans by the United States to build missile defence sites and deploy troops in Central Europe.
The situation in the world and internal political interests require the Foreign Intelligence Service to permanently increase its capabilities, primarily in the field of information and analytical support for the countrys leadership, Mr Putin said at a meeting with senior military and security officers in remarks that were posted on the Kremlins Web site.
The Foreign Intelligence Service is a successor agency to the KGB.
Mr Putin did not identify what nations would be the targets of the expanded effort, but officials in the United States and Britain said recently that Russia had intensified its spying in those countries.
Russias relations with the United States and other Western nations have grown increasingly acrimonious amid Western concerns that Russia is edging away from democracy and Kremlin suspicions about the Wests intentions.
Mr Putin said that American plans to base sites for a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic posed a security challenge for Russia. The United States says the facilities are necessary to protect the United States and Europe from missiles that could be launched by Iran or other states.
Mr Putin has proposed that the United States use a Soviet-built radar base in Azerbaijan for missile defence. American officials have said that the site in Azerbaijan was less useful because it is too close to Iran to intercept missiles fired from there.On Wednesday, Mr Putin said the United States was stonewalling. Alternative ways of protection from hypothetical missile threats which we proposed have been left unanswered, he said.
All-round strengthening of our military forces is one of our indisputable priorities, Mr Putin said, promising to continue equipping the military with new weapons.
Mr Putin also criticized the United States and other NATO members for failing to ratify an amended version of the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, which limits the deployment of tanks, aircraft and other heavy nonnuclear weapons around the Continent.
Earlier this month, Mr Putin suspended Russias participation in the treaty and threatened to withdraw from it completely if NATO nations did not ratify its amended version, which was signed in 1999, to reflect changes since the Soviet collapse. NATO members have refused to do that until Russia withdraws its troops from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia. ap
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\07\27\story_27-7-2007_pg4_5
