Putin touts new nuclear weapons against US

By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Last Updated: 3:03am BST 20/10/2007

President Vladimir Putin has announced plans to build a new generation of nuclear weapons after accusing the United States of harbouring an "erotic" desire to invade Russia and steal its natural resources.

Delivering one of his most belligerent anti-Western tirades, Mr Putin also suggested that America and its allies had concocted a fake assassination plot to prevent him from visiting Iran this week.

Casting himself as a pugnacious but benign defender of national sovereignty, the president told his people during a live television phone-in that only Russia's military prowess had prevented the country from suffering Iraq's fate.

But he delivered a relatively conciliatory message on America's plans to station a missile defence shield in Europe - proposals which Russia hotly opposes.

The subject of Western plots was first raised by Alexander, a mechanic in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. Was it right, Alexander wanted to know, that certain American politicians considered Russia's refusal to share its natural resources "unfair" — claims he bizarrely attributed to Madeleine Albright, the former US secretary of state.

"I know that such ideas are brewing in the heads of some politicians," Mr Putin replied. "I think it is a sort of political eroticism which maybe gives some pleasure but will hardly lead anywhere.

"The best examples of that are the events in Iraq, a small country that could hardly defend itself but which possesses massive oil reserves. Thank God Russia is not Iraq.

"It is strong enough to protect its interests within the national territory and, by the way, in other regions of the world. What we are doing to increase our defence capability is the correct choice and we will continue to do that."

On the subject of missile defence, however, Mr Putin was more...

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DB330 is based in New York and covers Russian politics -- especially foreign affairs. Until recently, the blog was probably most notable for its listing of public figures DB330 believes to be Russophiles and Russophobes.