Russian Missile Test A Dud
A very important test launch of the naval-based Bulava intercontinental missile failed Monday night. The test was the final exam before the missile would have been commissioned by the Russian Navy. Regrettably for the military, the third stage of the missile misfired and the missile self-destructed. The failure calls into question the future of one of the newest and advanced Russian ICBMs – Bulava has had quite a long record of faulty launches which has made it impossible to put it into service even despite the support of such Russian political heavyweights as vice premier and former defense minister Sergei Ivanov. More tests will be held in 2009.
End Of Cheap Gas?
President Putin has pulled out his favorite bugaboo Tuesday - high energy prices. The era of cheap natural gas is over, Russian prime minister said in Moscow. As prospecting and extraction costs rise, natural gas will become more expensive to customers, he said. According to Putin, gas-extracting countries should pursue a coordinated policy in order to make the gas market more predictable. To that end, Putin proposed the creation of a permanent body – like a gas OPEC – with its headquarters in St. Petersburg. (Where else?) Russia will finance the daily operation of the headquarters and will grant it a diplomatic status, Putin said.
Terrorist Threats Thwarted
About 100 acts of terror have been thwarted in Russia in 2008, Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov said, reporting on the results of this year's activity of his service. Most of these terrorist acts were planned in public places. Terrorists still want to get access to weapons of mass destruction.
Energy Deal Reached With Belarus
President Dmitry Medvedev reached an undisclosed agreement Monday with Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko on a price for Russian gas exports next year after Lukashenko offered some tough comments ahead of their meeting.
"I want to publicly sweep away all kinds of insinuations that have been voiced lately about Belarus going as far as to crawl to the Kremlin to beg for something," he said. "I want to say right off: We are absolutely not going to beg for anything at all."
Although no details for the Belarussian deal were released, Lukashenko appeared to have won concessions from Moscow if the curt statement issued by the Kremlin afterward was any indication.
"The talks have produced an agreement about the main principles" of supplying gas to Belarus and payments next year, said Natalya Timakova, Medvedev's spokeswoman.
Lukashenko said ahead of the talks Belarus couldn't afford the initial price proposal from Gazprom of at least $200 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. The country's First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said Belarus was looking for a price of $140. This means that either the talks were tough and a final agreement has not been reached, or a parallel security deal was involved. The security deal may have involved a joint air-defense system, a proposal that Belarus has balked at in the past. Russian sources close to the military have already started talking about plans to deploy mobile missile systems in Belarus as a response to U.S. missile shield in Europe.