We recall that this past May, President Putin chose not to attend a G8 meeting in Washington, D.C., and a NATO meeting in Chicago, but did travel to Beijing where he discussed energy deals, Iran’s nuclear situation and Syria’s civil violence. He also participated in meetings of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization (SCO) during that time.
Recently, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesmen told news agency RIA Novosti of Moscow’s intention to abandon the Nunn-Luger Cooperative Threat Reduction program, through which the U.S. has funded the decommissioning and disposal of excess and time-expired stocks of Russian nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and other strategic weapons since the 1990s. The move comes just as Moscow announced its intention to recommence nuclear tests and is placing emphasis on arming attack submarines with nuclear cruise missiles.
This new rejection of a long-standing cooperation agreement with the U.S. and its resumption of offensive-armaments buildup seem to be part of Putin’s strategic turn away from the West, as well as a move to warn China. As Russia continues its strategic shift from the West to the East, will this armament buildup eventually result in future deals with its Asian neighbors or will Russia be viewed as another regional threat?
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