#12
Moscow Daily Slams 'Exaggerated' Media Reaction to Tu-95MS Arctic Training
Rossiyskaya Gazeta
December 9, 2000
[translation for personal use only]
Report by Boris Talov:
"Difficult on Exercise. Why Are Bears Not Allowed To Do Same As Eagles?"
Russian Tu-95MS strategic missile carriers -- NATO
classification Bear -- only had to appear at Arctic airfields again for
"sensational" reports to appear in Western and a number of Russian media
that Russian pilots have once again begun pointedly rattling their
sabers.
People immediately remembered last year's dashes by our long-range
aviation's heavy aircraft to Iceland and the Aleutians, which caused
considerable worry for NATO strategists. For some reason the Western
media doggedly kept quiet about the latest appearance of the carrier
battle group led by the Kitty Hawk in the Sea of Japan in direct
proximity to our shores and the fact that U.S. F-15's (NATO
classification Eagle) constantly fly along Russia's borders until our
aerial reconnaissance aircraft appeared above the aircraft carrier on two
occasions. Rossiyskaya Gazeta has already provided a detailed report on
this operation. But when Russian heavy aircraft flew to their airfields
in the Arctic a goodly hullabaloo was immediately kicked up. The
Americans can supposedly go where they like but Russian military, while
on Russian territory, should coordinate their actions with NATO members.
But the "sensation" proved to have been exaggerated. At the end of
November several Tu-95MS combat jets were moved from their basing
airfields at Engels and Ukrainka to Vorkuta, Tiksi, and Anadyr in the
Arctic. At the same time Il-78 tanker aircraft moved from Ryazan to
Rogachevo airfield on Novaya Zemlya. The choice of time was no
coincidence: Polar night has started, which, as years of experience
shows, is the best time for combat training for the crews of heavy
aircraft. They are now mastering at top speed the difficult art of night
flights to the polar region.
It has been known for several decades that a pilot who has learned to
fly in the Arctic can fly anywhere and anyhow. It is no coincidence that
the long-range aviation command has chosen the most unfavorable time of
the year for the planned training sessions. Polar night, cyclones,
constantly changing weather, 30-40 degree frosts, and northern lights,
which disrupt communications -- these are the conditions in which the
crews of the heavy aircraft are improving their skills. Those left on
the ground are also having a difficult time -- despite the weather and
the incessant night they have to prepare the aircraft for flight and
ensure the operation of airfields along with providing communications and
navigation.
"It is strange to hear some statements that the Russians are once
again preparing for their latest dash almost to America itself,"
Lieutenant General Mikhail Oparin, commander of long-range aviation,
said. "Planned training sessions are taking place; aircraft are taking
to the skies for between 20 minutes and four hours and are going no
further than 200 km from the airfields. The combat jets, never mind the
tankers, are not carrying any munitions. At the same time we are
rehearsing certain elements for the provision of assistance to the crews
of stricken ships and aircraft in the Arctic in full accordance with the
Russian-U.S. program."
...This is the first time in the past few years that the crews of our
heavy aircraft have been involved in planned winter training in the
Arctic, which was once considered normal. It is gratifying that fuel has
been found; there are hopes that there will also be money to repair and
equip long-range aviation's Arctic bases.
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#13
MSNBC
Rice: A Russophile with Bush's ear
As national security adviser, Rice would push policy of restraint
By Michael Moran
Dec. 14 -- Condoleezza Rice, a Stanford academic and former Reagan
administration aide tapped as George W. Bush's national security adviser,
will return to Washington with the United States in what she herself has
described as "a remarkable position."
WITH THE Cold War more than a decade behind it, America wields
unprecedented influence in diplomatic affairs and is unchallenged as the
world's greatest military power. In her writings and public statements, Rice
makes it clear she believes that U.S. primacy makes it more important than
ever that the nation's foreign policy be disciplined, restrained and aware of
the nation's limitations.
As with the outgoing secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, who was
also in academia before taking office, Rice's positions on foreign policy and
security issues are well-known through her books, essays and her active role
in the Reagan White House. This means Rice arrives with a virtual blueprint
for decision making -- indeed, many regard her essay in the January/February
isssue of Foreign Affairs magazine, Promoting the National Interest, to be
just that. But as Albright discovered, it also means that carefully
formulated policy ideas always face the ultimate test of real world politics.
SETTING PRIORITIES
The Foreign Affairs piece, written during her time as the Bush
campaign's top foreign policy adviser, tears into the Clinton administration
for what Rice called a failure to set priorities or to distinguish between
major and minor issues. She went on to set out her five-point vision of an
American foreign policy under a Republican administration:
Strengthening the U.S. military, which she says the Clinton administration
has driven into a "death spiral."
Extending free trade to promote growth and stability.
Sharing burdens more fairly with overseas allies -- a reference to European
NATO and Japan.
Refocusing American efforts on "big power" relationships with China and
Russia.
"Dealing decisively" with the North Koreas and Iraqs of the world.
Endeavors that took up a great deal of the Clinton administration's
diplomatic energy -- peace negotiations in the Middle East and Northern
Ireland, for instance -- fall below the top level of priorities in Rice's
view.
These initiatives, as well as the Clinton administration's efforts to
improve ties with the United Nations, are the fruits of a "Wilsonian" view
of the world, Rice says. She vows to remake U.S. foreign policy as a tool of
the "national interest" rather than of "humanitarian interests" or "the
international community."
LEFT BIRMINGHAM BEHIND
The 46-year-old Rice was touched by history early in life when one of
her childhood friends, Denise McNair, was killed with three other black
children in the notorious 1963 Ku Klux Klan firebombing of a church in
Birmingham, Ala.
Rice was born on Nov. 14, 1954, in that southern city just as the
civil rights movement and the city's white establishment were about to make
it a synonym for all that was wrong with postwar America.
Her father, John Wesley, was a university administrator, and her
mother, the late Angelena Ray Rice, taught music and science.
Rice has told interviewers that Birmingham could have made me bitter.
... Instead, I think it made me, and I know a lot of my friends, just
resilient."
The young Rice raced through school, entering the university of Denver
at age 15, graduating at 19 and collecting a masters in international
relations from Notre Dame at 20.
Like many people in the younger Bush'[s inner circle, Rice is a former
Democrat who began questioning her party affiliation in the 1980s during the
Reagan administration. She has told interviewers she voted for Jimmy Carter
in 1976 but didn't agree with his foreign policy, particularly his response
to the 1980 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which led Carter to boycott the
Olympic Games in Moscow that year.
Rice spent much of the 1980s at Stanford, where she became a full
professor at the age of 26 in 1981. By 1987, her reputation, youth and her
unique position as an African-American woman specializing in Soviet military
affairs helped earn her a place in the Reagan White House as an adviser at
the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It was her official introduction to Republican
politics, yet as late as 1988 she was informally advising for Democratic Sen.
and presidential candidate Gary Hart.
READING TEA LEAVES
Rice's reputation as a sharp and eloquent foreign policy analyst has
its roots in Kremlinology -- the Cold War scrutiny of the Soviet leadership
that for decades was the discipline of choice for ambitious academics. Soon
after arriving at the White House in 1987, Rice found herself briefing both
Reagan and Vice President Bush on Soviet military thinking. In December 1989,
in a meeting on the Mediterranean island of Malta, Rice was introduced to
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev by Bush, by then president, as the woman who
"tells me everything I know about the Soviet Union."
Gorbachev, described by witnesses as somewhat surprised by Rice's
youth and race, is said to have replied: "I hope you know a lot."
As Rice tells it, "There was a time in my life when I knew the general
staff of the Soviet Union better than it knew itself."
Ironically, one of Rice's early mentors was Josef Korbel, Albright's
father and an instructor in international relations at the University of
Denver, where Rice received her undergraduate and doctorate degrees. Indeed,
Albright is said to remember Rice as a student visitor to the family home.
Despite her Kremlinologist's background and erudite reputation, Rice
also has a knack for making foreign policy accessible to a lay audience. The
president-elect himself, who readily admits that foreign affairs is not his
forte, has remarked that Rice "can explain to me foreign policy matters in a
way I can understand." In an increasingly wired, media-saturated world, that
may be a significant strength.
Michael Moran is senior producer, special reports at MSNBC and a
columnist on foreign affairs.
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