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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 09:42pm Apr 5, 2001 EST (#2021 of 2031)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Putin got some good press, well earned: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/06/world/06RUSS.html Russia Looks for New Roles in Diplomacy and Trade by PATRICK E. TYLER

almarst-2001 - 10:41pm Apr 5, 2001 EST (#2022 of 2031)

rshowalter 4/5/01 9:42pm

Indeed. It seems the NYT have changed a tone a bit since Bush's Presidency. Do you agree?

lunarchick - 11:38pm Apr 5, 2001 EST (#2023 of 2031)
lunarchick@www.com

Reading the article, Putin seems to be doing the RIGHT things. It's up to Europe to be 'bigger' than rogue president, Bush.

lunarchick - 12:18am Apr 6, 2001 EST (#2024 of 2031)
lunarchick@www.com

The main problem of the most ex-republics is that their economy was completely tied one to another, including energy and food. They can't just enter the EU market and mostly depended on energy from Russia and raw materials on one-another.

Sounds as if, had they been structured differently - with no dominant power, these republics and Russia might, today, have been able to develop into an equivalent of the EC.

lunarchick - 04:54am Apr 6, 2001 EST (#2025 of 2031)
lunarchick@www.com

China and USA look like good-buddies already!

lunarchick - 05:14am Apr 6, 2001 EST (#2026 of 2031)
lunarchick@www.com

momentum is gathering for another round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations later this year.

Mr Vaile is in Washington, and says the United States administration will devote more commitment and energy to the trade liberalisation process once it has settled in.

US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has again stressed the US must remain committed to tearing down trade barriers.

Mr Vaile says there has been a positive outcome from discussions about a new round of trade negotiations.

lunarchick - 05:16am Apr 6, 2001 EST (#2027 of 2031)
lunarchick@www.com

Russian industry ... has it moved from being State Protected, to functioning on a competitive basis ?

lunarchick - 05:53am Apr 6, 2001 EST (#2028 of 2031)
lunarchick@www.com

""For over a decade now the beacon of a free press in Russia has been the independent Television station NTV. It has dared to question the Kremlin line about the war in Chechnya and has vigorously pursued high level corruption involving both the Prosecutor General and the Kremlin. Since Vladimir Putin came to power he has moved to thwart this pursuit of free speech. In a boardroom coup on Tuesday, the Kremlin controlled gas monopoly Gazprom, seized control of the station and sacked the General Director Yevgeny Kiselyov, perhaps Russia's best known journalist and presenter. Journalists are currently barricaded inside the station refusing to accept the takeover. Eric Campbell investigates this attack on free speech by focusing on the battle for NTV and one of the only newspapers with a critical voice. In the latter case an investigative journalist has already been murdered and another brutally beaten. The journalists at NTV fear a return to an era when challenging the Government was definitely not a good career move. With the stand-off continuing, and talk of Ted Turner taking over the station, a timely reminder that press freedom remains a shaky concept in the new Russia. ""

Wouldn't it be good for Russia to invite in another 'free' channel ... so that Russians can compare the angles used to cover stories ? Never a good sign for a nation, when a bunch of thugs think they have the right to go kill a journalist!

rshowalter - 06:34am Apr 6, 2001 EST (#2029 of 2031)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

almarst-2001 4/5/01 10:41pm

I agree. Insofar as I can tell (speaking from a great distance, and with such low status that I'm barred from many kinds of communication with them) I'd judge that the NYT, as an institution is interested, not in Russia's interest, but in the interest of the "moderately elite" people who READ the NYT, the nation as a whole, and the interest of the world -- which includes Russia.

The paper tries to communicate the truth, as they understand it and to choose what to print (only a small part of what they could print, even in such a large paper) so as to serve the interests including the aesthetic and entertainment interest of their readers, and the people they hope will become their readers as these people actually are.

I feel sure of this. You shouldn't underestimate how deeply the NYT cares about it when journalists get beaten up, killed of (yes, this happens often enough to the female ones, raped.) That's a "gut" issue to the NYT. And so is a free press.

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