Putin resumes cold war flights and takes BBC Moscow off the air

Russia resumes Cold War bomber flights
 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/16/wrussia116.xml
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Last Updated: 1:26am BST 16/08/2007
Russian bombers have resumed the Cold War practice of flying close to North American airspace, providing the latest manifestation of the Kremlin’s determination to project Moscow’s growing military might.
An [anonymous and therefore gutless] American general said that US fighter jets have had to scramble to intercept Russian bombers on an increasingly regular basis.
“Over the last few months the Russian air force has been flying a little bit more than we’ve seen in the past,” said Gen Gene Renuart, commander of Norad, the joint US-Canadian agency in charge of defending North American airspace.
“Certainly they are ranging farther than they have in the more recent past.”
The development is the latest in a series of indications that Russia’s armed forces have recovered some of the swagger [yeah right, MI6 added that bit] that they lost in the long and humiliating decline that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In the latest display of military might, aircraft from Russia’s strategic nuclear bomber command flew sorties over the North Pole yesterday, giving the world a timely reminder of Moscow’s claims to the Arctic.
While the sorties were passed off as exercises, few doubt that the Russian air force’s growing presence in the skies has a political dimension.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has made rapid rearmament and military modernisation a top priority amid a row with Washington over US plans to station a missile defence shield in central Europe.......................

Kremlin orders BBC off the air
 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2277998.ece
The latest ban echoes the Cold War jamming of BBC broadcasts by the Soviet Union
Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor
Russia’s strained relations with Britain deteriorated further yesterday when local transmission of the BBC Russian Service was taken off air for being “foreign propaganda”.
In an echo of the Cold War, when BBC broadcasts were jammed by the Soviet Union, the FM broadcast station in Moscow said that it was taking off air all BBC Russian Service transmissions. Most Muscovites who listen to the BBC’s six hours of daily programmes tune in on the FM signal...........


Russia says that the CFE treaty has become "meaningless"
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6898690.stm
Russian President Vladimir Putin has suspended the application of a key Cold War arms control treaty.
Mr Putin signed a decree citing "exceptional circumstances" affecting security as the reason for the move.
Russia has been angered by US plans to base parts of a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The US said it was "disappointed" by Russia's decision but would "continue to have discussions with them in the coming months" on how to proceed.
The 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) limits the number of heavy weapons deployed between the Atlantic Ocean and the Urals mountains.
The Russian suspension will become effective 150 days after other parties to the treaty have been notified, President Putin's decree says.......................