Russian Defense Minister To Discuss Missile Issues With London

Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev reads at the Cabinet meeting in Moscow, 22 August, 2000. The Russian media voiced the outrage of many people that their government left it to Norway to announce that all of the sailors aboard the Kursk nuclear submarine were dead.. President Vladimir Putin's administration has been hit by a wave of public anger over its slow, often bungled handling of the rescue effort.

Moscow (Interfax) Nov. 20, 2000
Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev will visit Great Britain on December 6-8. During this visit he will discuss the main military and political issues relating to ballistic missile defense, strategic offensive weapons, and global and regional security, Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, the head of the main department for international military cooperation, told the press on Monday.

In the course of this visit, Russia "would like to get clarification on the measures that are being carried out within the military-political structures of the European Union," he said.

Ivashov noted that the Russian Defense Ministry attaches great importance to the first visit of the Russian defense minister to the British Isles. The London negotiations will focus on the analysis of and prospects for bilateral relations in the military sphere, he said.

The general said that military-technical cooperation between the two countries "is very limited, and Russia intends to raise the question of developing it."

"Together with the British military, we regularly carry out a number of measures, but they are not large- scale," he said.

Having said that, it is not planned that any documents will be signed based on the results of Sergeyev's visit. Ivashov expressed confidence that the cooperation between the Russian and the British Defense Ministries will expand in different spheres.

SPACEWAR

Foreign Ministry Denies Russia Ready To Change ABM Treaty

Moscow (Interfax) Oct 12, 2000
The Russian Foreign Ministry has categorically denied certain U.S. allegations that the joint statement on strategic stability made by the Russian and U.S. presidents in Moscow on June 4 contains a provision stating that the threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, missiles and rocket technologies must be opposed, including by considering changes to the ABM Treaty.

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