Russia May Exit Arms Reduction Treaty

A top Russian General said last month that Moscow might unilaterally opt out of the Arms Reduction Treaty with the United States, which was negotiated by Gorbachev and US President Reagan in 1987. This Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty eliminated an entire class of medium-range missiles that had been based in Europe.

General Yuri Baluevsky, the chief of the Russian Army’s General Staff was quoted by the Interfax Agency. "Everything depends on what the US does in their attempt to deploy missiles and establish bases into Poland and the Czech Republic."

General Baluevsky’s comments came after President Putin said last February 10^th that the INF Treaty no longer serves Russia’s interests.

Picket Held in Defense of Refugees

Last February 3, 2007 on the Pushkin Square there took place a picket line in defence of the rights of refugees. On this picket there were refugees from Baku and Abkhazia living in row housing on Sholokhov Street and Yasny Street, plus refugees that were expelled in 2004 from the housing apartments. The picket was organized by the Revolutionary Workers Party, Movement of subsidized housing of the Moscow region and the Youth in Defence of the rights of people.

Refugees from Baku, Azerbaijan (at this moment still citizens of USSR) they were expelled from their housing in 1990 by the Moscow City Council. Every year they had to register. Now they are being refused permits to live there. The present Moscow City authority said that they are refugees (still considering themselves as Russian speaking Soviet citizens Editor) and have no right to live in Moscow. Thus they cannot receive any pensions or medical help. Most of these refugees that had to flee the counter-revolution are pensioners, others are very ill, while many are hero veterans of the Great Patriotic War.

The same situation is with the refugees from Azerbaijan living on Sholokhov Street and living there since 1988.

These premises will now be taken over by the city for development and other uses, and name lists are made of those living there, but not one name is listed of these refugees. That means that scores of the Soviet refugees will find themselves on the street. These living quarters were taken over by police when they stormed the building in 2004 and evicted these refugees unto the street and these refugees are trying to live anyplace, on the streets, in underpasses, or anyplace they can.

There is an ongoing campaign to expel all Soviet refugees that had to run for their lives after the dismemberment of the USSR – the ongoing promotion of hysteria and chauvinism by the present Russian regime.

The signs-placards that the pickets carried said: "During Soviet times 80-90th years Moscow showed its internationalism. But now they the fooled the world and expelling us unto the streets" – "They took away from our parents their Motherland, now they’re taking it away from us."-"Our Motherland is the USSR!"

Russia Will Not Accept Any Revisions of WWII

MOSCOW- Russia will not accept the demands made by Japan to give back the Kurile Islands. The results must remain inviolable, stated Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin.

"Our position is well-known and it has and will not change."

A rally against Japan’s territorial claims was held in front of the Japanese Consulate in Yuzho-Sakhalinsk last February. The demonstration was united from all sections of the Russian political spectrum.

Placards carried said: "No to Japanese Revanchism!", "Russian Youth know their country’s borders!" "Thanks to the Yalta Conference which returned the Kurile Islands to Russia!"

The demonstrators slammed the Japanese imposed holiday, called "Day of Northern Territories in Japan."

Russia Faces Intensified NATO Encirclement

MOSCOW: "We cannot turn a blind eye on the approach of NATO’s military-infrastructure to the Russian

borders and the US intention to reconfigure its military presence in Europe, which will encompass not only redeployment of some of its troops to Bulgaria and Romania, but also the deployment of a global anti-ballistic missile defence component in the Czech Republic and Poland" said Alexander Kramarenko director of Russian Foreign Ministry.

"Regrettably, many of our partners, especially those in the West, have remained in the web of illusions and prejudices of the "Cold War Era", and are unable to overcome the retardation of bloc-biased approach and confrontational policies" - Kramarenko concluded.

Putin Attacks "Very Dangerous" U.S.

Russian President Putin has attacked the United States for what he said was its "almost uncontained" use of armed force around the world. He stated that "America’s very dangerous approach" to global relations was fuelling the nuclear arms race.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who also attended the Summit in Munich, said only that the Russian leader had "been very candid."

President Putin continued by saying that: "The world is witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations. One state, the United States of America has overstepped its national borders in every way. This is very dangerous. Nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law."

The BBC defence and security correspondent Rob Watson, attending the Munich Summit said that Mr. Putin’s speech was a strident performance which may well be remembered as a turning point in international relations.

US Senator Joseph Lieberman called the speech by Putin as "very provocative."

Russian government’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Mr. Putin’s speech was "not about confrontation, it’s an invitation to think. Until we get rid of unilateralism in international affairs, until we exclude the possibility of imposing one country’s views of other countries, we will not have stability."

CSTO Countries Are Coordinating Plans Against Aggression

CSTO countries coordinated draft protocol of assistance in case of any aggression against anyone of them.

This issue was on the agenda of the meeting of the permanent council members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which was held in Moscow and was chaired by Vasiliy Rudenok of the Republic of Belarus.

The meeting focussed on the further promotion of military and military-technical cooperation within the framework of CSTO.

Abkhazia Prepared For Georgian Attack

Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh said last month that any acts of provocation in the Gali region by Georgian forces will be repulsed and will not thwart the local self-governance elections… according to the Interfax news agency.

"As far as we know the Georgian side has sent several terrorist groups to the Gali district of the republic plus leaflets in order to disrupt the elections but the elections were held and the people voted for separation from Georgia.

Byelorussian Auto Plant Exports Trucks to Venezuela

The state owned Auto plant BelAZ is exporting dump trucks to Venezuela and it is the gateway for Belarus to the Latin America in its export of top-notch dump trucks for open cast mining.

According to Minsk they export over 200 dump trucks there, they export these high-end dump trucks not only to former Soviet republics but to China, Australia, Iran and many EU countries.

Lukashenko Defends Himself

President Lukashenko criticized the West last month for supporting the Byelorussian opposition groups, saying that those foes were outcasts who had failed in the government and lived and are living off foreign financial donations.

The European Union and the United States have halted any dialogue with Belarus and slapped visa bans on Byelorussian diplomats and officials, charging that Lukashenko has rigged the elections and imprisoned dissidents etc.

Lukashenko stated that: "These well paid European officials come here, walk freely around the streets, meet the so-called opposition, collect some data, come up with criticisms of the so-called dictator Lukashenko and go back home." He added that: "The West is cooperating with these so-called opposition, but they are not opposition, they are renegades who were unsuccessful as members of my government. They were all part of my team. They were all alongside myself and promoted the same ideology. But the portfolios they were given they considered as too small, so they then went into opposition, and, they are making money out of this!"

The European Union demanded that Belarus accept 12 conditions before any dialogue can be resumed.

Belarus government rejected these demands and told the European Union to follow Byelorussian example and "create full employment and other benefits for all the people."

Pentagon Prepares For Possible War with Russia

The USA Defence Secretary thinks that American armed forces must be ready for a large-scale war with Russia, the Associated Press reported last month.

"We need a full set of measures to conduct a war, including both special military units necessary for war against terrorists and large infantry troops to be able to fight against large regular armies. We do not know what changes are going on in Russia, North Korea, Iran and others, but mainly Russia", Defence Secretary Robert Gates stated.

Top officials in the Russian Government stated that this is the "Cold War of the 21^st Century".

Sergei Markov, Director of the Russian Political Research Institute said: "We can see that Russia is increasingly perceived by the United States as a potential foe since the deployment of US missile shield right on the borders of Russia is intended as a political weapon against our counter\y."

It is a fact that the US withdrew from the Ant-Ballistic Missile Treaty precisely in order to restore their full control over the strategic nuclear potential of Russia.

Leonid Ivanov of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems in Moscow said that if Russia is not careful: "Russia may end up cornered in the North, and it will become a tiny Nordic country!"

SCO is the "Shanghai Cooperation Organization" which was started in June 2001 by the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and it is promoted as a counter organization to NATO. It is also promoted by some of these leaders as similar to the Warsaw Pact Countries – which basically is very false, since SCO is composed of countries that are all capitalist – including China.

Nepal wants to join now as a full member, while India, Mongolia, Pakistan and Iran have observer status.

SCO is another junior capitalist block of nations competing against the stronger imperialist groupings headed by US imperialism. This SCO is certainly not promoting socialism or leading the struggle against the New World Order – they just want their piece of the pie, northing more, nothing less.

War of Words Heating Up Between Russia and Belarus

According to the latest events taking place and reported on Internet and in the Russian newspapers that NSC receives, here in a capsule form is the problem:

* Gazprom, which is a privately owned gas and oil producing monopoly, has warned Belarus not to siphon gas from the main pipeline leading across its territory if the natural Gas monopoly cuts off the gas to Byelorussia. Gazprom has raised its price astronomically and now is demanding that Belarus pay $105 per 1,000 cubic meters in 2007, more than double the price that Belarus was paying according to the signed contract.

* To make matters even more complicated, since Belarus is a mixed economy and capitalist enterprises are a factor, Russia’s private monopoly Gazprom has now purchased a 50 per cent stake in Belarus’ government Beltransgaz controlled pipeline operator – thus the squeeze is on President Lukashenko, who is under siege both from Imperialist West and from capitalist Russia.

* President Lukashenko of Byelorussia has threatened last month to charge transit fees for Russian oil being shipped across Byelorussian territory. Meanwhile the Byelorussian agriculture official, Ivan Danchenko, stated that Russia has virtually halted all imports of Byelorussian sugar.