FOUR MINUTES APART:
RUSSIA TESTS MISSLES BY LAND AND BY SEA
Russia test-fired nuclear-capable ballistic missiles from both land and sea on Friday, it has been reported.
The tests came back-to-back, less than four minutes apart, according to ITAR-TASS.
MOSCOW, February 16 (Itar-Tass) - A missile submarine of the Northern Fleet launched a ballistic missile on Friday at 13.28 PM Moscow time during a strategic command and staff exercise of the Russian Armed Forces.
MOSCOW, February 16 (Itar-Tass) - Russian strategic missile troops successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile "Topol" at 13:34 PM Friday. The ballistic missile was launched in accordance with a scheduled military drill.
The intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from Plesetsk cosmodrome in the north of Russia.
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The tests come amid increasingly angry exchanges of words between Moscow and Washington over weapons proliferation and U.S. anti-missile defense plans. Russia says it will counter proposed U.S. defenses by beefing up its land, sea and air nuclear deterrents.
Leonid Ivashov, the head of the chief international military cooperation department of the Russian Defence Ministry, said on Friday: The deployment of the National missile defence [NMD] system by the USA will lead to the destruction of strategic stability and resumption of the arms race.
NEW ARMS RACE TO BE WORSE THAN AT TIME OF COLD WAR, RUSSIAN GENERAL DECLARES
"Multiple statements by high-ranking officials of the Administration and the new U.S. President that the NMD will be unquestionably deployed are conspicuous," Ivashov said. "The U.S. is making it clear that it does not intend to take seriously objections expressed by Russia, China and other states as concerns such activities."
"Our estimates show that NMD deployment will result in upsetting the strategic balance between 'the shield and the sword'.
"This will result in a new spiral in arms race, involving outer space, and an additional impetus to proliferation of rocket technologies. Incidentally, in a worse version than at the time of the cold war," the general declared.
If the United States deploys a national missile defense system, it will be virtually spearheaded at the Russian and Chinese rocket potentials, Ivashov said.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on his birthday on Friday. Kim Jong Il, Secretary-General of the Communist North Korean Labour Party, supreme commander-in-chief of the Korean army and chairman of the defence committee of North Korea, was 59 on February 16.
Putin said in a message of greeting that further development of cooperation between Russia and North Korea meets the interests of both countries and makes a tangible contribution to strengthening security on the Korean peninsula. |
