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Russian President Vladimir Putin assured US filmmaker Oliver Stone that Russia would create an economical and effective response to US and NATO actions to preserve the global strategic balance. Asked for comment, political scientist Nikita Danyuk explained why the Russian president's message was something Western powers need to hear and understand.
Speaking to Stone in 'The Putin Interviews', a documentary series which started its broadcast on the Showtime television network this week, Russia's president explained that Moscow has the resources to respond to belligerent US and NATO policy, including attempts to ring Russia with missile defense.
Russia, Putin said, is now almost surrounded by US missile defense systems, from ground-based bases in Eastern European countries, to NATO ships patrolling the Mediterranean and the northern seas, and Alaska, where missile defense systems are currently being installed.
This, the president stressed, was "another big, glaring strategic mistake [by] our partners, because Russia will give a suitable response to all of these actions, and this will mean nothing else other than another phase of an arms race. Our response will be much cheaper. Its [equipment] may be rougher somewhere, but it will be effective. We shall preserve this so-called strategic balance."
Asked for comment, Nikita Danyuk, political scientist and deputy director of the Institute of Strategic Studies and Prognoses, told Radio Sputnik that Putin's remarks about Russia being surrounded by US missile defenses underscored a fundamental contradiction in US foreign policy.
"In this part of the documentary, the thesis was repeatedly expressed that the US for some reason has become accustomed to allowing itself to pursue a policy of upholding its national interests, which by definition does not give other sovereign states the right to pursue the same independent policy. Here…Putin emphasized that by and large, there are only a few states in global politics which can conduct an independent sovereign policy – with Russia being one of these states," Danyuk said.
According to the observer, the Russian president was able to formulate a very important message to Russia's Western counterparts.
"In my view, the message is that Russia is not an enemy – that it is a country which is open to dialogue. But at the same time it is a country which will not compromise its national interests, which is always ready to defend its sovereignty, and which will not allow other states to encroach on our national security in any way. And particularly through answering the question on missile defense, Putin outlined certain 'red lines', beyond which he factually did not recommend for anyone to cross," Danyuk concluded.
© SPUTNIK/ ALEXANDR VILF
RS-24 Yars mobile ground missile systems with at the military parade in Moscow marking the 72nd anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
In his interview with Stone, Putin also reminded the director that the US was the nation to unilaterally withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002, under the pretext of an Iranian threat.
"We have been told for all this time that 'this move is not about you,''nothing threatens you,' as the move has been allegedly taken against Iran," the president recalled. "But now there are no problems with Iran, the [nuclear] deal has been signed with it. Iran has abandoned all nuclear military weapons programs. The United States agreed with it and signed the corresponding document. However, the missile defense program with its elements in Europe continues further. Against whom is it aimed? Obviously, it prompts us to respond to the situation somehow."
© FLICKR/ US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS EUROPE DISTRICT
The US Army Corps of Engineers Europe District is managing the construction of a $134 million Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Complex in Deveselu, Romania
Finally, commenting on NATO's creeping expansion into Eastern Europe, Putin emphasized that in light of the Soviet Union's demise, and Iran's decision to abandon its nuclear weapons program, there is no sense for NATO to continue to accept new members. Instead, he said, countries should instead focus on reaching agreements on security and mutual assistance if they feel threatened.