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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 - 07:07pm Aug 19, 2001 EST (#7918 of 7932)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

"On Aug. 19, 1991, they put Gorbachev under house arrest. Tanks entered Moscow.

"Yeltsin, then president of the Russian Federation, one of the 15 Soviet republics, hoisted his burly frame atop a tank. He denounced the coup plotters. Supporters streamed in, sticking flowers in tank guns and building barricades. International condemnation mounted.

"Two days later the coup was defeated. Gorbachev was back, but irreparably weakened. On Dec. 25, 1991, he resigned and declared the USSR defunct.

"In the decade since, Soviet satellite nations in Eastern and Central Europe, and the former Soviet republics in the Baltics, have largely embraced democracy and free-market economies. And most are thriving.

"But Russia and former Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus have atrophied under economic crises, separatist wars and the collapse of ties among the former republics.

"``Ordinary people got nothing'' from the Soviet Union's demise, Yuri Yerushov, a 48-year-old unemployed man who was among the White House defenders in 1991, said Sunday.

"The coup plotters gathered last month to defend their actions, saying the ensuing economic meltdown and a string of armed conflicts in Russia and other former Soviet republics proved they were right in trying to stem the Soviet breakup.

"That theme was echoed Sunday in a rally staged by ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

"``Democracy has been all lies, and what we see is a rotting, degrading country. We have witnessed a decade of political and moral corruption, banditry, alcoholism and AIDS,'' he told the crowd of about 100 people.

"Outside Moscow few anniversary commemorations were planned.

"Estonian President Lennart Meri was to hold a dinner commemorating his country's 10 years of independence and Riga, the capital of neighboring Latvia, is holding a gala celebration of its 800th birthday.

"In Belarus on Sunday, 12 opposition activists picketed the country's KGB -- which still goes by its Soviet name -- and Interior Ministry headquarters, to protest President Alexander Lukashenko's rigid, Soviet-style policies. Five were detained and later released.