In February it was a new Cold War, now it is a new Cuban Crisis. And I wonder what is next?
“Putin compares U.S. missile shield to Cuban crisis” by Oleg Shchedrov, Fri Oct 26, Reuters:
Russian President Vladimir Putin drew a parallel on Friday between U.S. plans for a missile shield in Europe and the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, widely regarded as the closest the world came to nuclear war.
But the Kremlin leader said his personal friendship with U.S. President George W. Bush had helped to prevent the latest U.S. initiative from turning into a new global disaster.
“I would remind you how relations were developing in an analogous situation in the middle of the 1960s,” he told a news conference after the Russia-EU summit in the Portugal.
“Analogous actions by the Soviet Union when it deployed rockets on Cuba provoked the Cuban missile crisis,” said Putin. “For us, technologically, the situation is very similar. On our borders such threats to our country are being created.” (…)In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack strongly rejected Putin’s comparison between the U.S. missile shield proposal and the Cuban crisis.
“There are some very clear historical differences between our plans to deploy a defensive missile system designed to protect against launch of missiles from rogue states such as Iran, and the offensive nuclear capability of the missiles that were being installed in Cuba back in the 1960s,” McCormack said.
“They are not historically analogous in any way, shape or form,” he said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said: “I don’t know quite what to make of the strong remarks. Even within his comments … (Putin) still acknowledged that we had made some positive proposals and put forward some interesting ideas.” (…)“I’m still hopeful we can make progress … and partner with the Russians. But the rhetoric sometimes is fairly troubling,” Gates said in a speech in Texas.
In a demonstration of potential consequences, a top Russian military commander said on Friday Moscow could resume the production of short and medium-range nuclear missiles, similar to those which threatened Western Europe in the mid-1980s. (…)
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Im Februar war die Rede von einem neuen Kalten Krieg, nun von einer neuen Kuba-Krise. Was wohl als nächstes kommt?
“USA weisen Putins Vergleich mit Kuba-Krise zurück”, welt.de, 27. Okt. 2007
Die Regierung in Washington hat die von Russlands Präsident Wladimir Putin aufgebrachte Parallele zwischen den Plänen für einen US-Raketenabwehrschild in Osteuropa und der Kuba-Krise von 1962 zurückgewiesen.
„Hier gibt es ein paar ganz klare historische Unterschiede“, sagte Präsidialamtssprecher Sean McCormack am Freitag. Der geplante Schutzschild sei defensiv ausgerichtet und ziele darauf ab, Raketenangriffe aus „Schurkenstaaten“ wie etwa dem Iran abzuwehren. Im Falle der Kuba-Krise habe es sich hingegen um ein offensives Unterfangen gehandelt, als die Sowjetunion damals mit Atomsprengköpfen bestückbare Raketen auf der Karibikinsel stationierte.
US-Verteidigungsminister Robert Gates reagierte auf Putins Vergleich ebenfalls reserviert: „Ich weiß nicht genau, was ich von diesen starken Anmerkungen halten soll“, sagte er. Putin habe schließlich auch eingeräumt, dass es einige positive Ansätze in dem Streit um den Raketenschild gegeben habe. „Ich hoffe immer noch, dass wir Fortschritte erzielen können“, sagte Gates bei einem Besuch in Texas. „Aber die Rhetorik ist doch manchmal recht beunruhigend.“ (…)