On Russian-American Talks, Putin Shows ‘Who’s Boss’: Yezhednevniy Zhurnal, Russia

How much influence does Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wield over foreign affairs almost two years from stepping down as Russian president? According to this article from Russia’s pro-opposition Yezhednevniy Zhurnal, Putin regularly steps on President Medvedev’s toes and just came close to scuttling Russo-U.S. talks on a news START III treaty — just as everyone thought a deal was ‘in the bag.’

For Yezhednevniy Zhurnal, columnist Alexander Golz writes in part:

Prime Minister Putin has demonstrated whose word is to be cast in stone. No sooner had President Medvedev finished berating Putin henchman Sergei Chemezov, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin showed who’s boss.

Russian generals have long complained of an alleged injustice: according to START-I, the sides must share data on every rocket launch. The “injustice” is that Americans aren’t developing new offensive weapons, for the simple reason that they don’t consider our side to be a military threat (which, evidently, terribly offends comrade V.V. Putin). From time to time they carry out missile launches in order to check the status of their nuclear forces. But information about these launches is of no interest to Russian analysts – for the 1000th time, they receive telemetry on the launch of a missile developed 30 or 40 years ago.

But Russian launches are another story. Moscow, as Putin rightly pointed out, is focused on creating a new generation of offensive strategic weapons. And, naturally, Americans are curious about how testing for Bulava, aka/RS-56 or the RS-24 are going. Therefore, Russia put forth the proposal that in exchange for this data, the U.S. would provide us with the telemetry of its missile defense tests. Among other things, this is a way to establish a de-facto link between offensive strategic weapons and strategic missile defense.

All of this would be fine, except for the fact that by announcing Russia’s demands, Putin deliberately violated an agreement between the Kremlin and the White House not to disclose any details about the talks until a new treaty is signed. This, as well as the fact that Putin unequivocally considers the United States to be a strategic adversary, will of course be used by opponents of the START Treaty in the U.S. Senate. But, apparently, that is precisely what the Russian prime minister is trying to do.

By Alexander Golz

Translated By Yekaterina Blinova

December 31, 2009

Russia – Yezhednevniy Zhurnal – Original Article (Russian)

Prime Minister Putin has demonstrated whose word is to be cast in stone. No sooner had President Medvedev finished berating Putin henchman Sergei Chemezov, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin showed who’s boss. Speaking to reporters in Vladivostok, Putin stomped all over the president’s territory by, for instance, speculating on reforms at the Interior Ministry (under Russian law, the Ministry is subordinate to the president – not the prime minister). And he touched on a sore point of foreign policy, calling plans to rebuild Georgia’s shattered Kutaisi Memorial in Moscow a “punch in the nose” to Georgia (Prime Minister Putin, as we can see, is far from hiding the fact that for him, the memory of WW II is no more than an instrument in his anti-Georgia campaign). And finally, the most important thing is that Putin has taken it upon himself to seriously impede a new Russia-U.S. strategic weapons treaty.

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