Russia undermining US strategic interests?

[Internationalist_81]

They may have lost their superpower status, but Russia is again at the center of the move to restrain American domination. Only months after the new honeymoon with Bush, it's becoming clear that Putin has learned what other strongmen mastered long ago in dealing with America: Say one thing, do another.

In 2002, Russia's relations with the "Axis of Evil" and Communist China appear stronger than ever. Nuclear cooperation with Iran is forging straight ahead. Russia remains Iraq's most reliable spokesman in the UN and has just hosted North Korean dictator Kim Jongil for the second straight year. On top of all this, arms sales to China are hitting an all-time peak. The string of recent deals reads like a laundry list of Beijing's wishes: 2 new destroyers with deadly anti-ship cruise missiles, 8 Kilo-class submarines with the 'Klub' missile system, 40 Sukhoi Su-30 fighter-bombers (on top of the 80 already sold since 1999). Even worse, in June Russia agreed to classify arms-deal figures at China's request, and some experts now suspect there's even more significant transfers not being made official:

-The brand-new S-400 antiaircraft system, which would give China effective coverage of all Taiwanese air space, possible capability against US stealth bombers and medium-range ballistic missiles
-A batch of Mig-29s for the Chinese Navy
-New fighter-bombers like the Sukhoi Su-32 and Su-34
-One or two Akula-class nuclear submarines
-Extensive R&D cooperation in developing fifth-generation fighters
-Transfer of sensitive dual-use nuclear and space technology

This is probably Russia's way of getting back at America's trying to plant itself in its traditional zones of influence: the Caucasus and Central Asia. Such is the wisdom of the US hawks' foreign policy -- they're so arrogant they don't realize Russia still has some teeth left.

[michealsvechnoshna]

Russia dosen't like spotlights as much as America,, power will always change sides no matter what..
politicians will sell their mothers to close a deal,,nevermind saying one thng and doing the other..

what happened to the nukes cut rate deal between russia and america,,, how about bush selling india for the support of pakistan against Terrorism,,,what's going on in Kashmier right now??

i think was trying to see the good in bush,,who dosen't care about anything except domination of his version of "Freedom" for the next 10-20 decades.

pah,,i agree with you,,russia always had hidden teeth left when all is down..

[CastleStormer]

They're having a "garage sale". When someone's out of money, they have to sell some stuff to pay the bills. I'd like to pick up one of those great submarines cheap, but I can't trailer it to Lake Arlington.

[Kolya]

I think that the Russian government is afraid that their country will be mistreated by USA, if USA gets too powerful.

US politicians often don't care how their actions affect people outside the US because these people don't vote for them.

Although USA is a democracy within its borders, outside its borders it can act like a king.

One example was the US support for El-Salvador government which employed death-squads against ordinary people.

Such actions would never have been tolerated within USA. But outside USA, US government could do whatever it wanted.

The US constitution does not restrict the US government from doing bad things to foreigners in foreign lands.

[titoman]

Like I said before. Putin and Bush might be shaking hands on TV, but behind that there are many interests for capital which will sooner or later come into conflict.