http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/05/11/003.html
Thursday, May 11, 2006.
'Comrade Wolf Eats Without Listening'
By Anatoly Medetsky
Staff Writer
Grigory Sisoyev / Itar-Tass
Ivanov standing as two lawmakers shake hands after Putin's address. Prime
Minister Mikhail Fradkov is behind him.
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called for smarter defense spending in a
world where "Comrade Wolf knows whom to eat" -- apparently referring to the
United States' aggressive stance in global affairs.
Putin, in his state-of-the-nation address, said he envied the amount of money
that the United States could plow into defense but offered assurances that
Russia could maintain military parity at a much lower cost if it achieves
"intellectual superiority."
Russia's military budget amounts to only 4 percent of that of the United
States, he said.
"This is what defense professionals call 'their home is their castle.' And good
for them! Good for them!" Putin said.
He then said Russia should also build "a strong, reliable home because we do
see what's going on in the world."
"Comrade Wolf knows whom to eat. It's eating without listening to anyone. And
by all appearances, it's not going to listen," Putin said, prompting the
audience to burst into applause.
"Where is all this pathos about the need to fight for human rights and
democracy when it comes to the need to pursue their own interests?" Putin
asked. "Here everything is possible. There are no limits."
By using the wolf allegory and mentioning democracy, Putin appeared to taking a
jab at the White House. U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick
Cheney accused Russia last week of not always sticking to democratic values.
Putin emphasized that Russia should upgrade its military but not repeat the
mistakes of the Soviet Union, which sacrificed its economy and social spending
to an arms race with the United States.
The path to reliable security lies through "intellectual superiority" that
would allow the armed forces to increase the efficiency of the nuclear triad at
a lower cost, Putin said.
In the next five years, Russia plans to upgrade its fleet of nuclear submarines
and long-range planes as well as land-based intercontinental ballistic
missiles, Putin said. It will also continue to develop new high-precision
weapons that will be difficult to intercept, he said.
He said Russia would soon commission two nuclear submarines equipped with the
new Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles, noting that the submarines
would be the first to be constructed since Soviet times.
The military must not only defend the country from terrorism and possible
attacks from abroad, but also help resist political pressure from nations that
seek to become stronger at Russia's expense, Putin said. "I must say this
directly: The stronger our armed forces are, the less temptation there will be
to exert such pressure on us, whatever reasons are used to apply it," Putin
said.
However, Putin had earlier in the speech called for an end to the arms race and
urged disarmament, an issue that, he said, had moved to the back burner in the
face of terrorism. There are still no guarantees that weapons, including
nuclear weapons, will not be deployed in outer space, and there is a risk that
small nuclear bombs will be built, he said. On top of that, experts and the
media have been discussing plans of tipping ICBMs with conventional warheads,
Putin said. The launch of such a missile could provoke a nuclear power to
deliver a nuclear counterstrike, he said.
On Iran, Putin said that Russia was unequivocally in favor of nonproliferation,
but warned that use of force was rarely successful and could cause consequences
that would be more dangerous than the initial threat.
Putin reiterated that two-thirds of the army would be enlisted men instead of
conscripts by 2008, which would allow the state to slash the length of
mandatory service from two years to one. About 600 rapid-response units will
begin operating by 2011, he said. "We need armed forces that are able to
simultaneously carry out battles in global, regional and, if need be, several
local conflicts."
The military should be able to guarantee Russia's security and territorial
integrity, he said, referring to the fight with militants in the North Caucasus.
Grigory Sysoyev / Itar-Tass
Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and Tatarstan's Mintimir Shaimiyev
arrive.
He said the threat of terrorism remained significant, especially in ethnic and
religious conflicts. "I know that someone would very much like Russia to get
bogged down in these problems and, as a result, be unable to solve a single one
of its problems of comprehensive development," he said without identifying the
foe.
Reforms have improved the armed forces from what they were in 1999, when
militants crossed into Dagestan from Chechnya and began hostilities, Putin
said. The army then needed at least 65,000 troops to beat back the attack, but
it had only 55,000 who were battle-ready, he said. "So we had to send rookie
boys to battle. I will never forget that," he said. "And the goal for you and
me is to make it never happen again."
In his remarks, Putin left listeners with the clear impression that he would
like to spend as much on defense as the United States, said Ivan Safranchuk, a
Moscow analyst with the Center for Defense Information, a Washington-based
think tank. "Russia wants to be another wolf," he said.
The wolf reference was a response to the "United States, its actions in Iraq
and plans toward Iran, its games on the territory of the CIS and its criticism
of Russia," Alexei Makarkin, an analyst at the Center of Political
Technologies, a think tank, said on Ekho Moskvy radio.
Putin's goal of intellectual superiority is realistic because Russian weapon
designers and engineers were on par with their U.S. counterparts, Safranchuk
said. But Russia lags behind the United States in strategic military
decision-making, including a call on what weapons it needs to develop and
deploy, he said.
Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky criticized the speech in a statement, calling
it the announcement of a policy of "a fortress country, a distrust toward
partners and a superiority over neighbors."
Gleb Pavlovsky, a Kremlin consultant, said Putin had signaled his reluctance to
get Russia involved in armed conflict. "The goal is to stay out of trouble,
especially military trouble, that is introduced into the world by the United
States," he said, Interfax reported. "The address says it directly: Dragging us
into a Cold War will not be possible."
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