03oct03

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NATO: Russia's Military Warns on Pull-back.

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Russia has warned NATO again to pull back on tactics Moscow says are menacing Forces chiefs were "carefully watching the NATO transformation process, hoping that direct and indirect anti-Russian aspects will be withdrawn from the military planning and from political declarations of the NATO members," says a new policy paper listing scenarios for military engagement.

Partnership was the key, said a document Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov unveiled Thursday.

If NATO was preserved as a military alliance with a "now-practiced offensive military doctrine," Russian Armed Forces organization would have to be rethought, "including a change of Russian nuclear strategy," the paper cautioned.

Use of military force envisages conditions which the policymakers list as factors of external danger. It's an extensive list covering:

• deployment of military groups with a goal to attack the Russian Federation or its allies;
• territorial claims on the Russian Federation, threatened political or military separation of any territories;
• implementation of weapons of mass destruction programs by organizations, movements and states;
• interference in Russia's internal affairs by foreign countries and organizations;
• demonstrations of military power near Russian Federation borders, holding military exercises with provocative purposes;
• threatening armed conflicts near the borders of the federation or its allies;
• instability and weakness of state institutions in bordering countries;
• increase of military presence leading to unbalanced forces near the borders;
• expansion of military blocks and alliances to the detriment of federation military security;
• activities of international radical groups, strengthened positions of Islamic extremism near Russian borders;
• deployment of foreign troops on adjoining and allied states without federation consent and without UN Security Council approval;
• armed provocations, including attacks against Russian military infrastructure located in foreign countries;
• action preventing the normal work of Russian state and military control systems to guarantee the functioning of strategic nuclear forces;
• action preventing Russian access to strategically important transport communications;
• discrimination, suppression of rights, freedoms and legal interests of Russian Federation citizens in foreign countries;
• distribution of equipment and technologies used to produce nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction alongside dual use technologies that could be used to create weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems.

[Source: Pravda, Moscow, Rus, 03Oct03]

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