The site:
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1999/12/15/43537
The article:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Russia Launches New Missile as Warning
NewsMax.com
December 15, 1999
In a calculated warning for the United States to butt out of its internal affairs, Russia launched with fanfare its newest strategic nuclear weapon Tuesday.
It soared eastward across 3,400 miles and seven time zones, landing as programmed in a target range on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula just short of Alaska.
But its true impact was directed westward toward the American heartland, now shown to be within easy range of the versatile Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile.
This awesome display of force came only four days after President Boris Yeltsin — outraged at President Clinton's criticism of his war to suppress the breakaway Caucasian republic of Chechnya — placed Russia's nuclear missiles on full war footing.
In a move intended to signal that Russia means business, Prime Minister Valdimir Putin, who is strongly prosecuting the Chechen war, made a display of being on hand to witness the Topol-M blast off.
He issued a blast of his own when he said Russia "will use all diplomatic and military-political levers in its disposal" to resist the American president's "interfering" in Chechnya.
"The diplomatic levers are clear," Putin said, "and as for the military ones, Tuesday's successful launch of the Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile is one of them.
"No one can accuse the government of inappropriate use of anti-terrorist measures in Chechnya, call Russia an aggressor or an occupier.
"Some nations and blocs under cover of international organizations are interfering into affairs of independent states, and trying to speak to them in the language of force.
"We are not used to such language, since Russia has a nuclear shield."
This was an abrupt reversal of Putin's conciliatory language only a few days earlier, when he tried to modify an angry statement by Yeltsin reminding Clinton that "Russia is a great power that possesses a nuclear arsenal."
Putin also took the occasion at the Topol-M launch pad to warn Clinton one more time that Russia will not tolerate his efforts to modify or scrap the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in order to build an American anti-missile defense system.
The Clinton administration says such a shield is needed to protect its territory against a limited missile attack by a "rogue nation," not a nuclear onslaught such as Russia can inflict.
But Russia, for decades fearful of becoming vulnerable to a U.S. first strike, has regarded the ABM Treaty as its only effective nuclear shield.
If the U.S. goes that route, Russia says, its response will be to fit its Topol-M missiles with multiple nuclear warheads capable of penetrating any defensive screen.
With its earlier long-range missiles obsolete, Russia is betting the farm on its vaunted new Topol-M.
Unlike previous Russian ICBMs, with their massive payloads and launch power, Topol-Ms are relatively small, highly mobile on trucks and very difficult to detect and track before they could deliver a crippling blow.
The launch of the Topol-M, with its reputed ultimate range of more than 6,000 miles, is the latest in a series of recent alarming military moves in Russia.
In October, Yeltsin revealed plans for a massive military build-up, escalating the military budget by half.
In November, the Russian navy fired two ICBMs from a submarine some 3,000 miles onto the Kamchatka range.
In response to U.S. and NATO military intervention in Kosovo, both military and civilian leaders have made clear their war games are preparation for a conflict with the U.S.
Russia has been deploying subs and planes on cat-and-mouse surveillance with U.S. ships and jets.
The Toronto Globe and Mail said this was "the first time in years that the Russians have played such Cold War games."
Yeltsin was in Beijing last week, strengthening Russia's military, economic and diplomatic ties with Communist China as the foundation of an obvious growing alliance against the U.S.
[/quote]
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John/az
"The middle of the road between the extremes of good and evil, is evil. When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..." RKBA!
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1999/12/15/43537
The article:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Russia Launches New Missile as Warning
NewsMax.com
December 15, 1999
In a calculated warning for the United States to butt out of its internal affairs, Russia launched with fanfare its newest strategic nuclear weapon Tuesday.
It soared eastward across 3,400 miles and seven time zones, landing as programmed in a target range on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula just short of Alaska.
But its true impact was directed westward toward the American heartland, now shown to be within easy range of the versatile Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile.
This awesome display of force came only four days after President Boris Yeltsin — outraged at President Clinton's criticism of his war to suppress the breakaway Caucasian republic of Chechnya — placed Russia's nuclear missiles on full war footing.
In a move intended to signal that Russia means business, Prime Minister Valdimir Putin, who is strongly prosecuting the Chechen war, made a display of being on hand to witness the Topol-M blast off.
He issued a blast of his own when he said Russia "will use all diplomatic and military-political levers in its disposal" to resist the American president's "interfering" in Chechnya.
"The diplomatic levers are clear," Putin said, "and as for the military ones, Tuesday's successful launch of the Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile is one of them.
"No one can accuse the government of inappropriate use of anti-terrorist measures in Chechnya, call Russia an aggressor or an occupier.
"Some nations and blocs under cover of international organizations are interfering into affairs of independent states, and trying to speak to them in the language of force.
"We are not used to such language, since Russia has a nuclear shield."
This was an abrupt reversal of Putin's conciliatory language only a few days earlier, when he tried to modify an angry statement by Yeltsin reminding Clinton that "Russia is a great power that possesses a nuclear arsenal."
Putin also took the occasion at the Topol-M launch pad to warn Clinton one more time that Russia will not tolerate his efforts to modify or scrap the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in order to build an American anti-missile defense system.
The Clinton administration says such a shield is needed to protect its territory against a limited missile attack by a "rogue nation," not a nuclear onslaught such as Russia can inflict.
But Russia, for decades fearful of becoming vulnerable to a U.S. first strike, has regarded the ABM Treaty as its only effective nuclear shield.
If the U.S. goes that route, Russia says, its response will be to fit its Topol-M missiles with multiple nuclear warheads capable of penetrating any defensive screen.
With its earlier long-range missiles obsolete, Russia is betting the farm on its vaunted new Topol-M.
Unlike previous Russian ICBMs, with their massive payloads and launch power, Topol-Ms are relatively small, highly mobile on trucks and very difficult to detect and track before they could deliver a crippling blow.
The launch of the Topol-M, with its reputed ultimate range of more than 6,000 miles, is the latest in a series of recent alarming military moves in Russia.
In October, Yeltsin revealed plans for a massive military build-up, escalating the military budget by half.
In November, the Russian navy fired two ICBMs from a submarine some 3,000 miles onto the Kamchatka range.
In response to U.S. and NATO military intervention in Kosovo, both military and civilian leaders have made clear their war games are preparation for a conflict with the U.S.
Russia has been deploying subs and planes on cat-and-mouse surveillance with U.S. ships and jets.
The Toronto Globe and Mail said this was "the first time in years that the Russians have played such Cold War games."
Yeltsin was in Beijing last week, strengthening Russia's military, economic and diplomatic ties with Communist China as the foundation of an obvious growing alliance against the U.S.
[/quote]
------------------
John/az
"The middle of the road between the extremes of good and evil, is evil. When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..." RKBA!