Medvedev sees arms race if missile shield not agreed

[pampango]

Source: BBC

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said a new arms race could begin in the next decade if Nato and Moscow fail to agree on a joint missile shield.

In his annual speech to the nation, he said he had advocated a "fully fledged joint mechanism of co-operation" at a recent Nato-Russia summit.

On Tuesday, President Medvedev said a joint shield would combine "the potentials of Russia and Nato and ensure the protection of all European countries from missile threats".

"I would like to say openly in this hall that over the next decade we are facing the following alternative: either we reach an agreement on missile defence and create a fully fledged joint mechanism of co-operation or, if we fail to reach a constructive agreement, a new round of the arms race will start and we shall have to take decisions on the deployment of new strike equipment," he said.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11872801

[TheLastMohican]

1. The Robin guy should better consult the Alpha Dog

on these issues. LOL

[maddezmom]

2. kick

[Blue_Tires]

3. Go forth and multiply, Medvedev tells his declining population

Source: independent.co.uk

Russia's president called on his citizens to go forth and multiply yesterday, promising bonuses for families who have three or more children.


Dmitry Medvedev used a major speech to the country's political elite to decry the "demographic crisis", telling regional leaders they should follow the example of the Ivanovo region, where families who had three or more children are given extra land or a free country house.

But in a speech that some people were expecting Mr Medvedev to use as a campaign platform for the 2012 presidential elections, he had few concrete targets or policies and instead offered a mix of vague suggestions and moderate threats. In the week that Wikileaks revealed that American diplomats view Mr Medvedev as "Robin" to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's "Batman", the speech will have done little to dispel doubts that Mr Putin plans to sweep aside his protégé and return to the Kremlin in 2012.

Mr Medvedev, who last year used the same speech to talk at length about the need to liberalise the country, this year stayed away from politics and devoted the speech to Russia's children. He said: "In the next 15 years we will feel the demographic effects of the 1990s when the birth rate was low – this is a serious threat. It is a challenge to our whole nation. According to experts, a good way to get over the demographic crisis is to radically increase the number of families with three or more children."

Russia has suffered from a plummeting population since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Recently, the Kremlin reinstated a Stalin-era practice of awards ceremonies for particularly prolific parents, and Mr Medvedev said yesterday that child benefit would be raised for the third child and beyond in each family.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/go-forth-and-multiply-medvedev-tells-his-declining-population-2148032.html

[marmar]

4. F**k for Mother Russia !!!!

Cool ad campaign.

[xchrom]

5. ...

:spray:

[Blue_Tires]

6. They certainly have enough more-than-suitable women

[Auggie]

7. Yeah, have more children so they can enjoy famine and plague

in climate-changed world. :eyes:

[Crowman1979]

10. Not to mention radioactive waste.

I wonder where they are going to get the money to pay for all the future birth defects?

[BonnieJW]

8. If he just waits awhile,

people will be migrating to Russia in droves once the Earth heats up. Siberia will have perfect climate.

[Xithras]

9. That's one of Russia's fears.

China has claimed many times over the past 50 years that Siberia is righfully Chinese. While China's population is growing, and its military and economic might are expanding, Russia is watching it's eastern territories be depopulated as birthrates fall well below replacement levels and the rural populations increasingly move into the western urban centers.

If current military and population trends hold, and if climate change makes the Russian Far East more habitable, Russia could find itself in a very poor position to defend itself against Chinese expansion in another 50 years or so. Honestly, since the Chinese already outnumber the Russians 10-to-1, it's probably already too late for them. The only thing keeping China from turning Siberia into the next Tibet is Russia's nuclear arsenal.

[Name removed]

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