DATE=10/5/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / U-S ARMS (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-254677
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Russia has accused the United States of
violating the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty by
testing a missile designed to shoot down long range
strategic weapons. V-O-A's Peter Heinlein in Moscow
reports Russian officials are threatening to withdraw
from all disarmament treaties if the United States
goes ahead with development of the new missile defense
system.
TEXT: Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir
Rakhmanin (Tuesday) denounced the successful test of
the proposed U-S missile defense system. He told
reporters such tests undermine the A-B-M treaty,
considered a cornerstone of the disarmament process.
In last Saturday's test, an anti-missile warhead
launched from from the Marshall Islands intercepted
and destroyed a Minuteman intercontinental ballistic
missile fired from California, nearly seven-thousand
kilometers away.
The test heightened Russian concerns that the United
States might develop a defense that would neutralize
Russia's nuclear strike capability, upsetting the
strategic balance of forces because Russia's
impoverished government could not afford to keep
pace.
U-S officials have tried to calm Russian fears, saying
the proposed system would be designed to protect only
against a small-scale nuclear strike by terrorists or
a rogue state, and would not be effective against an
all-out Russian nuclear attack.
A recent U-S intelligence report concluded that during
the next 15 years, the threat to the United States of
a long-range ballistic missile attack is most likely
from Russia, China, and North Korea, probably from
Iran, and possibly from Iraq.
But Russian defense ministry officials discounted that
assessment. The head of the ministry's international
cooperation department, Leonid Ivashov, accused the
United States of deliberately inventing new threats to
justify construction of the missile defense system.
In an interview with the Interfax news agency, General
Ivashov charged that the only real reason for
developing the system was to leave Russia at a
disadvantage. (Signed)
NEB/PFH/JWH/JP
05-Oct-1999 13:13 PM EDT (05-Oct-1999 1713 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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