Thursday, May 24, 2012

The re-set utton isn't working

Remember when Hillary Clinton went to Russia to talk to the Russians and she gave them a prop re-set button? Something that was supposed to be symbolic of the new direction of American Russian diplomacy? Apparently it ain't working anymore. As if it ever did. Now that Putin is back in office, I expect relations with Russia to continue to deteriorate. Putin has a life long history in the communist party and the KGB. The man is not interested in any relationship with America that isn't adversarial.


Russia tests new missile, in warning over U.S. shield

A mobile launcher with a Topol-M missile travels along the Red Square during a military parade in Moscow in this May 9, 2010 file photo. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
MOSCOW | Wed May 23, 2012 4:39pm EDT
(Reuters) - Russia tested a new long-range missile on Wednesday that should improve its ability to penetrate missile defense systems, the military said, in Moscow's latest warning to Washington over deployment of a missile shield in Europe.
The Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) was successfully launched from the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia and its dummy warhead landed on target on the Kamchatka peninsula on the Pacific coast, the Defense Ministry said.
The new missile is expected to improve Russia's offensive arsenal, "including by increasing the capability to overcome missile defense systems that are being created", the ministry said in a statement.
Russia opposes a missile shield the United States and NATO are deploying in Europe, saying it will be able to intercept Russian warheads by about 2018, weakening Moscow's nuclear arsenal and upsetting the post-Cold War balance of power.
The United States says the system is intended to counter a potential threat from Iran and poses no risk to Russia, but the Kremlin has rejected those assurances and stepped up criticism of the system, to be deployed in four phases by about 2020.

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