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Putin lashes out at US
18/10/2007 14:48 - (SA)
Moscow - Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at US policies in Iraq and Iran in a national phone-in broadcast on Thursday, and announced new nuclear weapons for Russia's increasingly powerful armed forces.
Speaking live on national television and radio with Russians from across the vast country, Putin called the US intervention in Iraq a "dead end" and suggested that the US-led invasion was aimed at controlling Iraqi oil fields.
He told one caller that any outside power dreaming of snatching Russia's own massive oil and gas wealth was indulging in "political erotica".
"Russia has the strength and the means to defend itself," added Putin, who is due to step down next year, yet still has no obvious successor.
In a link-up with servicemen at the Plesetsk nuclear missile base, Putin announced that Russia would build another new nuclear submarine next year and was also planning a "completely new" atomic weapon, about which he did not elaborate.
"We have grandiose plans and they are absolutely realistic," Putin said, speaking hours after the military announced the successful test firing of a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile.
Putin then delivered a swipe at Washington's tough stand on Iran, saying that Russia's insistence on negotiations with the Islamic Republic over its Russian-backed nuclear power programme was better than "threats, sanctions or even force".
He called media reports of an assassination plot against him in Iran that surfaced on the eve of his visit on Tuesday to Tehran an attempt to "wreck" his visit.
This was Putin's sixth such phone-in during eight years in power, but was under particular scrutiny for clues to Putin's future political career after December parliamentary and March presidential elections.
Putin, 55, has left the world guessing about what he will do after the March election, in which he is barred by the constitution from seeking a third consecutive presidential term.
The former KGB officer who came to power in 2000 repeated on Thursday that he will step down, saying "there will be another person here in the Kremlin in 2008".
Putin said the economy was booming, but conceded that the government was so far unable to control inflation of 8.5% and rising beyond "the planned parameters".
However, he trumpeted economic growth of 7.7%, saying "the results of this year were positive, even better than we expected".
There has been a more than doubling of foreign investment, 13.4% increase in incomes, and 5.1% increase in pensions, he said, while gold and foreign currency reserves are at record levels.
Putin also claimed credit for a slowdown in the country's catastrophic mortality rate, saying that government benefits to families were having an effect.
Although Putin says he will step down next year, he remains by far the dominant political force in a country where there is almost no outspoken opposition.
- AFP
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