Russia to Withdraw from Lourdes Base in Cuba Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [The mainstream press is portraying this as some kind of cave-in to the USA, when it appears more likely that it is simply a surrender to the futility of attempting to maintain any monitoring stations under treaties that the US is unilaterally abrogating. Russia denied last August that it intended to withdraw from Lourdes (see item below). In fact, it appears to be withdrawing the last few personnel it maintained in Cam Ranh Bay as well. Mr. Putin has now completed the total capitulation begun by Gorbachev, the CIA's man in Moscow. Lucia Newman is claiming Cuba will be "angry and upset." Perhaps. But they will not be surprised. -- NY Transfer] * CNN - October 17, 2001 Russia to close Cuban spy station MOSCOW, Russia --Russia is to close its Cold War-era spy stations in Cuba and Vietnam as part of a worldwide pull-back. President Vladimir Putin ordered the withdrawals at a meeting with top military chiefs at the Kremlin. General Anatoly Kvashnin, Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, said after the meeting that Russia would dismantle its radar stations in Lourdes, Cuba, and Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. He said that the closure of the station in Cuba alone would allow Russia to save at least $200 million a year in rent and salaries -- enough to buy 20 intelligence satellites, officials said. CNN's Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty said a Kremlin source told CNN that the decision was dictated partly by financial considerations -- but "political considerations" -- notably the sensitivities of the U.S. -- were involved in the decision. The source told her closing the bases was "a positive political gesture" at a time when both countries were fighting terrorism. Dougherty said the move came on the same day that the new U.S. ambassador to Moscow Alexander Vershbow presented his credentials to President Putin. At a photocall afterwards Putin strongly reiterated his support for the anti-terror coalition. Only last December Putin visited the electronic spying facility in Lourdes. He told the station's staff that their mission was "useful and important" for decision making. But he also added that the base was "an irritant" in U.S. relations. The U.S. Congress voted in May 2000 to restrict financial aid to Russia unless it closed the Lourdes facility. CNN's Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman said that Cuba would be "angry and upset" by the decision as after the fall of the Soviet Union Russia had committed itself to maintaining the base. She said the Casrtro regime would also lose a valuable source of intelligence on the U.S. as Russia shared the results of its monitoring with Cuba. In June, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry confirmed that Russia had decided not to extend its lease for the naval base at Cam Ranh Bay, which has served as Moscow's strategic foothold in the region. The lease was set to expire in 2004. Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/10/17/putin.cuba/index.html * Reuter's Analysis: ANALYSIS-Cuba base closure signals Putin is courting West By Jon Boyle MOSCOW, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Russia's surprise departure from a Cold War Cuban base used for spying on the United States signals President Putin's readiness to ignore military hawks and forge closer ties with Washington, analysts said on Wednesday. Putin told his military chiefs Russia would close the Lourdes base on the Caribbean island after almost four decades as Moscow's "listening post" on America, whose Florida coast is just 90 miles (150 km) away. He also announced Russia would withdraw from the gigantic Cam Ranh Bay base in Vietnam, another key Soviet-era ally, curbing the navy's aspirations to play a strategic role in Asia. "It is the first real step towards a real partnership with the U.S.," said independent military expert Alexander Golts. "If you wanted a symbol of the Cold War, it was Lourdes. "I think it is a clear signal to the U.S. that Russia is changing its position, that we are true allies. It is a very important signal which continues this shift of Mr Putin towards a clear partnership with the West." The Russian leader has offered stalwart support to the "war on terrorism" declared by U.S. President George W. Bush in the wake of the hijack attacks on the United States last month. Putin has also backed U.S.-led air strikes against Afghanistan, accused of sheltering the alleged mastermind of those attacks -- Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden. RUSSIAN GESTURES Putin has sent a number of clear signals to the West that he wants to end Russia's traditional policy of studied truculence towards the United States. In the wake of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, Putin told Washington he had ordered Russia's air defences not to go on alert -- the standard Soviet procedure in reaction to important international events. As well as offering U.S. aircraft Russian air space for humanitarian flights to help those displaced by air strikes on Afghanistan, Putin cleared the way for former Soviet republics in Central Asia to offer their air bases to U.S. forces. In Brussels Putin softened his stance on NATO expansion eastwards, saying Russian hostility could be reviewed if NATO became geared more to political than purely military issues. Such a reaction would have been unimaginable even earlier this year, when Russia was still patching up ties with NATO that were damaged during the alliance's air campaign against Moscow's ally Yugoslavia during the 1999 Kosovo crisis. BATTLES BREWING On coming to power on New Year's Eve, 1999, Putin said the economy was key to restoring Russia's tarnished status as a great power. Powerful, efficient armed forces were possible only if the economy modernised and shook off Soviet sloth. But his apparent abandonment of Russia's traditional "Eurasianism" -- its love-hate relationship with the West -- has powerful opponents who may yet try to thwart the president. "I think the majority of the higher echelons of power do not support the president" in his overtures to the West, said Vadim Solovyov, managing editor of the Nezavisimaya Gazeta Military Review. "They would like a tougher line to achieve more concessions from the American side on resolving problems of strategic national defence," a reference to U.S. missile defence plans hitherto opposed by Moscow. Interestingly, Putin sweetened the pill by announcing more cash for the military, the need to radically improve training and salaries, and to ensure military reforms enabled Russia to confront emerging threats to its security. Whether Putin can take with him his hawkish Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, a close ally and fellow native of St. Petersburg, remains to be seen. "Any further development in the partnership with the West...moves us slowly to the underlying contradictions between Mr Putin and those he thought were his closest allies," said Golts. 12:58 10-17-01 * Here's the prior story... Russia Denies Plans to Shut Lourdes Base Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [The Lourdes listening post in Cuba is necessary for monitoring compliance with the various SALT and ABM treaties agreed to between the US and Russia. Paranoid fantasies about it have been spread for years by gusano and right-wing US sources, among them that Cuba uses it for "electronic warfare." If the Russians are shutting down their operation there, it has less to do with "financial aid" from Washington than with their disgust over Bush's plans for a new space-based arms race. If true, it is an ominous sign for the whole planet. -- NY Transfer] source - AFP via Miami Herald August 15, 2001 RUSSIANS DENY REPORT THEY ARE WITHDRAWING FROM LOURDES BASE IN CUBA MOSCOW, Aug 15 (AFP) -- Russia dismissed a report by a Moscow newspaper on Tuesday that it was preparing to shut down an electronic listening post in Cuba in exchange for financial aid from Washington. Defense Minister Igor Ivanov denied the report by the daily Izvestia that Russia was about to dismantle the base at Lourdes, the Interfax news agency reported. Citing sources on the army general staff, Izvestia said the Russian base on the island would cease to operate by December, in line with persistent demands by Washington for it to shut down the base by the end of the year. "Men and material are being hurriedly withdrawn," Izvestia quoted a senior officer as saying on condition of anonymity. About 1,500 Russian engineers, technicians and soldiers observe submarine activity from the base at Lourdes at a cost of $300 million a year to Russia, according to military experts. Washington says Moscow is using the facilities to spy on the United States. nyteeu-08.15.01-14:48:58-29266 ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytenv-10.17.01-13:32:18-9791