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| Russia exhibits nuclear missiles |
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Saturday, May 10, 2008
MOSCOW: Nuclear missiles and tanks paraded on Friday across Red Square for the first time since the Soviet era but new President Dmitry Medvedev warned other nations against “irresponsible ambitions” that he said could start wars.
Marching bands and 8,000 troops goose-stepped across the square, followed by a huge display of heavy weapons, including Topol-M ballistic missiles and T-90 tanks, and a fly-by of warplanes.
Reviewing his first parade as commander in chief, Medvedev warned against “irresponsible ambitions” that he said could spark war across entire continents. In an apparent attack on US foreign policy and Western backing for Kosovo’s independence, Medvedev also criticised “intentions to intrude in the affairs of other states and especially redraw borders.”
Alongside the new president was his mentor and now prime minister, Vladimir Putin, standing under bright sunshine in a tribune in front of Lenin’s Mausoleum, the Soviet holy of holies that was screened off by a giant hoarding inscribed with May 9, 1945.
The show of strength on the 63rd anniversary of victory against Nazi Germany symbolised Moscow’s growing boldness following eight years of rule by Putin, whose hawkish policies have set Russia at loggerheads with Western capitals.
Medvedev, who was inaugurated on Wednesday, is a close ally of Putin and had been his aide for much of the last two decades. Many analysts believe that Medvedev, 42, will be a weak president reliant on the support of Putin, 55, who on Thursday became prime minister. Other observers say the untested Medvedev will grow into the presidency, which carries huge powers in Russia — as symbolised by the Red Square parade.
Earlier Putin said the parade was not “sabre-rattling” but “a demonstration of our growing defence capability.”
The commemoration came after Washington on Thursday said Moscow had expelled two of its diplomats.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday dismissed the move as “just the usual tit for tat” in response to Washington’s expulsion of a Russian spy.
Russia’s military spending has increased eightfold to an annual $40 billion during Putin’s eight-year tenure, thanks to the nation’s oil bonanza. Analysts, however, say the armed forces suffer from the same problems that dented its capability and prestige since the Soviet collapse.
Widespread bullying of young conscripts by older soldiers has made draft extremely unpopular, and the once-proud military has been plagued by rampant official corruption and mismanagement. Despite repeated pledges by Putin to modernise military arsenals, the armed forces have purchased only a handful of new combat jets and several dozen tanks.
Most of the combat equipment shown in Friday’s parade was slightly modernised versions of the Soviet weapons designed in the 1980s. “As the Soviet Union in the past, Russia wants to demonstrate its might to potential enemies,” military analyst Alexander Golts wrote in the online Yezhednevny Zhurnal. “But the West clearly understands the true picture behind the talk of ‘rising potential.’”
Modern communications and control systems remain scarce, and a Russian equivalent to the US GPS satellite navigation system has failed to come on line as scheduled this year amid equipment shortages.
Even such basics as night goggles, portable radios and satellite phones are still rarities.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
