Putin Warns Energy-Dependent Russia of New Arms Race

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg News

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- President Vladimir Putin warned that excessive economic dependence on energy could threaten Russia's existence, and said the country can't afford to get dragged into a new arms race.

If Russia continues to rely on its natural resources to drive economic growth, it ``won't be able to provide for the country's security or normal development,'' Putin said in a televised speech in Moscow today. ``We will threaten the very existence of the country.''

``A new phase of the arms race is unfolding'' in the world, Putin said, and Russia musn't allow itself to get dragged into a ``spending confrontation'' on arms that would be ``destructive'' for the economy and ``detrimental to Russia's internal development.''

Putin, who took office in 2000, was addressing a meeting of Russia's State Council on his strategy for the development of the country until 2020. He leaves office in May after a March 2 presidential election in which he can't run, as the constitution bars him from serving more than two consecutive terms. Dmitry Medvedev, the man Putin says should succeed him, was in the audience, and television cameras frequently focused on him.

Putin has regularly criticized the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics, and in particular U.S. plans to deploy elements of a missile-defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601095&sid=aNJR0pM58umA&refer=east_europe

[Doctor_J]

1. All he has to do is wait for the US to endure another few years of fascist rule

then we'll be completely broke and won't be able to stand up to anything.