Russia successfully tested a prototype new weapon that can penetrate any prospective missile defenses during last month’s military exercise, a senior Russian General said last month.

Colonel General Yury Baluyevsky, first deputy chief of the General Staff, said that the prototype of a new hypersonic vehicle has proved its ability to maneuver in orbit – a quality he said would allow a weapon based on such a craft to dodge an enemy’s missile shield.

"The flying vehicle changed both the altitude and direction in flight. During the experiment that we concluded, we proved that it’s possible to build new strategic weapons that would be unrivaled in the world" Baluyevsky said.

Capitalism In Ukraine – Ouch!

Ukraine is so indebt to the IMF and World Bank that in 2003 it owed the West 1 billion 426 millions plus the interest that grows with every year.

The illiteracy index in the USA has reached over 20% of the population and is growing at an alarming rate, according to UNESCO. This growth and the reasons for it are being transported into the school system of both Russia and Ukraine.

According to the data compiled by the EU, about 20% of the young people 14 years and under cannot read or write. This is due to the lack of financial support for school educational system in these countries and only those parents that have money can send their children to school.

By RICK ROZOFF

Negotiations on an agreement between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan for the oil pipeline are in the final stages, according to Natik Aliyev, President of Kazakhstan and also president of the private oil State Oil Company of Azerbaijan and it is now open to international investors. This is done on orders from the Western oil consortium in order to bypass Russia completely.

Treaties are in the making also with Georgia and Turkey for future extensions of this supply oil pipeline to the West, with the view to bypass mainland Russia.

KOMINFORM

NATO will provide air security for the Baltic states when they join the organization this month. NATO spokesman said that the planners are working urgently on a plan to ensure the new eastern wing of NATO alliance, left undefended because of these countries lack of fighter jets.

The weak communist candidate from the CPRF received only 13.7 per cent of the votes.

Aside from cheating, manipulation and stuffed ballot boxes, Putin promised free theatre tickets and food to everyone who turned out to vote. The cost of being a presidential candidate is close to $2-3 million American dollars. With the press, TV, radio media in the hands of Putin, there was not much chance for anyone becoming president and, with US imperialism behind Putin, plus the influx of millions of dollars, the outcome was no surprise.

In future issues of NSC we shall publish an analysis from our friends in Moscow.

The candidate from the CPRF and the policy of this "communist party" is already discredited in the eyes of the people. This party is an opportunistic party, having lost touch with the working class and it overall supports the policies of Putin in the Russian parliament.

Watch for an in depth analyses by our friends in Russia in the future issue of Northstar Compass.

From DeWaarheid

US military aid will continue to Georgia. This was announced to the journalists by Georgian president Saakshvili when he was in Washington last month. Over these years over 10,000 servicemen will receive their training.

UIS has already spent over $64 million as part of re-equipment and in training of 3 battalions of Georgian commandoes and a fourth battalion is graduating this month.

British instructors had Georgian personnel in training in the center at Vyskov in the Czech Republic. These British officers are training troops in special duties in all of the former Socialist countries in central Europe. This in conjunction with all other help and support offered by NATO in order to get Georgia into its team of "fighting terrorism".

From NORWAY POST-March 24/04

Russia warned Norway and other NATO member nations against assisting Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in monitoring their air space, when these countries become members of NATO alliance.

Alexander Yakovenko, spokesman for the Russian Foreign Office said that Russia reserves the right to take counter measures if NATO goes and deploys fighter planes and military equipment in these three former Soviet republics.

These plans of NATO are for Denmark, The Netherlands and Belgium to support these three nations with F-16 jet fighters that will be stationed in Lithuania. Norway also is sending ground troops to these three former Soviet republics as part of NATO cooperation and keeping an eye on Russia.

The CIA exploited the Soviet Union’s desire for western technology by sending a flawed software that resulted in a huge gas explosion on a natural gas pipeline in 1982. Nobody was killed in the blast, but it did significant damage to the economy, the Washington Post said last month, quoting the memoirs of Thomas Reed, a former Air Force secretary who served in the National Security Council.

Approved by then President Ronald Reagan, the plan was part of a "cold-eyed economic warfare" against the Soviet Union that the CIA conducted under its Director William Case, said Reed, whose book "At the Abyss: an Insiders History of the Cold War", which is being published this month.

The Soviet Union wanted to get the technology and created a certain apparatus. This secret apparatus agency was set up to get information on the latest technology, was then disclosed to the French Intelligence people by a Soviet engineer, (who after that defected) who in turn alerted the Reagan Administration in 1981.

Shocked that the Soviets were obtaining this technology and aware that the United States at the same time was trying to block Western Europe from importing Soviet natural gas, the CIA came up with the idea of slipping the Soviets the technology that would work only for a while, then fail.

"In order to disrupt the Soviet gas supply, its hard currency earnings from the West, and the internal Russian economy, the pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines and valves was programmed to go haywire, after a decent interval, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures to beyond those acceptable to pipeline joints and welds", Reed writes.

The resulting explosion in the summer of 1982 said Reed, was observed from space by US satellites and caused concern among the US military, who feared it was a missile liftoff. A CIA agent quickly told the military what had happened. "While there were no physical casualties from the pipeline explosion, there was significant damage to the Soviet economy. Its ultimate bankruptcy, not a bloody battle or nuclear exchange, is what brought the Cold War to an end."

By VANYA KALASHNIKOV

The article below shows the diplomatic sparks that are flying between US and Russia. This is apparently a reaction to the testing of the new Russian generation weapons system TOPOL-7 and the massive exercises of the Russian forces that took place last December.

The IMF and USA canceled grants and loans to Russia in the last two years.

Another item I picked up in the press here (how true it is I do not know) is that the soldiers of the Ukrainian army were ordered to address each other as comrade (tovarish)! The Communist party of Slovakia split in two, with two separate newspapers being published, which has split the membership into two distinctive parts.

Uneasy questions were asked by Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, while visiting the Kremlin and the language that was used was not the diplomatic kind, since Powell expressed great dissatisfaction with the progress of "democracy" in Russia.

Colin Powell said that certain developments in the domestic and foreign spheres in Russia makes US uneasy. In an article in the newspaper "Izvestia" which published the interview, Powell said that there is no balance between the executive, legislative and judicial powers. He asked Putin directly as to what does he mean by "directed democracy"?

In this electoral year where Putin won the presidency, while Bush is not so sure about his victory, according to some analysts, it looks as if Bush will try to distance himself from Russia, since President Bush is "not satisfied as things are progressing in Russia", according to Powell.

Powell reminded his counterpart, Igor Ivanov and Putin himself that the US wants Russia to respect the sovereignty of Georgia and Moldavia and get their troops out of Georgia and from other former Soviet republics. For President Bush the US public must be placated and on what foundations Bush will co-operate with Russia if he gets elected is still unclear.

Until the US elections the Russian analysts from the Russian Academy if Sciences feel that Washington will try to improve relations with Russia. It is interesting that one of Bush’s challengers, Clarke warned that a police state is being established in Russia by Putin and that this un-democratic state cannot be an ally of the USA. If Bush keeps speaking of Putin as "my friend" and Putin starts jailing his opponents, Bush would be embarrassed and lose his domestic support.

Open letter to Gennady Zyuganov
Chairman of the CC of the CPRF

Dear Gennady Andreevich!

I am forced to talk to you with this letter regarding the publication of articles in the newspapers "Zavtra" (Tomorrow) and in the "Sovietskaya Rossia" (Soviet Russia) articles propagating fascism.

"Zavtra" was publishing articles from the Web page site of the All Russian Fascist Party, which has its site logo "borman.ru" carrying the name of Borman who was the leader of the German Nazi party. Opening this site on the Internet, you see first of all the nazi swastika on a black background. These newspapers which basically are considered the mouthpiece of the CPRF, asked its readers to log on and get acquainted with this fascist site.

The newspaper asks its readers to get acquainted with documents by Rozdiavsky and Vosnyansky, leaders in the 1930’s the most rabid fascist organization functioning outside the borders of the Soviet Union and which carried on terrorist activities and diversions against the USSR from Manchuria. In 1945 they were caught and sentenced to death by a military tribunal.

The newspaper "Sovietskaya Rossia" in its January 10^th edition published an article titled "Terrible Times" and signed by some one who calls himself "Russian". This author praised Hitler to high heavens, that he did not steal even one penny from the German people and in only six years "managed to build the strongest nation in Europe."

I’m certain that you know under what circumstances and at what human and economic costs these "successes" were achieved, and to what consequences he brought the Soviet and German people at the end of Word War II.

Therefore I feel that this article and other articles that your two supportive newspapers are printing now are insulting all of the Soviet people and people of other European countries, and first of all Communists who are dead set against fascism.

I also feel that this article is insulting to you also, since your photograph appears smiling over the top of this insidious article!

Knowing that these two newspapers are perceived as opposition newspapers against the present regime, it is unbelievable that these two newspapers should support national socialism as being expounded by these fascists!

A statement from you and the CPRF should in some way dispel this terrible oversight by your supporting newspapers.

With respect

A. PRIGARIN
First Secretary of
CC RCP-CPSU