"We need the full range of military capabilities. We don't know what's going to develop in places like Russia and China, in North Korea, in Iran and elsewhere."

I'm sure it has not escaped your notice that Putin has just made a speech at some kind of international conference, launching into the United States in almost an unprecedented way, and apparently blaming the US for the current drive by certain countries towards nuclear proliferation. I think he is clearly taking advantage of the current situation in which you have a lame duck president who is very unlikely to respond with an appropriate counter-attack. If I was speaking for the US I would say the following:

There is no doubt about the countries that Mr Putin is principally referring to. North Korea (the psychopath state created by the Soviet Union) recently tested its first atomic bomb, after all of the US brokered attempts to prevent it by diplomatic means and imposition of sanctions failed. Russia's part in the negotiations ranged from indifference to obstruction, and after NK first announced that it had the bomb the official Russian reaction was "North Korea does not have the required technical capability." Putin did play an active roll in relations with style North Korea however. Soon after his appointment as president, he invited Kim Jong Il to the Kremlin, and soon after that made an agreement to sell arms to him.

The other main country which we, and the rest of the world are referring to is of course Iran. Let us be quite clear about this, the fact that Iran will soon be capable of producing Nuclear weapons is a situation that would not exist without Russia's help. In the early 1990s Russia made an agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran to sell two nuclear power stations to it, and no other country was willing to do so. I don't know how many people are aware of the following two facts but: First, the most favoured non-renewable energy source for power stations in the developed world in recent years is natural gas. This is considered the least bad option environmentally, and makes very sound economic sense unless the price of the gas is too high. Secondly, Iran has the second largest proven reserves of natural gas in the world after Russia. These two facts together make the sale of nuclear power plants to Iran the nearest thing there could possibly be to selling freezers to Inuits. Hence right from the outset, the powers that be in Russia must have been aware that Iran's primary objective in obtaining nuclear power plants was to produce nuclear weapons. Subsequent events have born out this assumption amply. Again, Russia's relations with Iran: It is a valued economic partner and a valued client for its burgeoning arms market. Most recently it has sold them one billion dollars worth of high tech anti-aircraft missiles. Clearly the fact that Iran has taught a generation of its people to regularly chant "death to America" is considered desirable by the man who claims to be America's partner in the "war on terror".

Perhaps Mr Putin considers his recent and projected sales of arms to third world countries and pariah states is a force for stability. One example is the new MiG 35 fighter plane. Russia can congratulate itself on the fact that this is widely considered to be equivalent to the new American Super Hornet. Doubtless Putin thinks that the world can feel reassurance from the fact that, after selling large numbers of these to India, Russia intends to sell them to: Syria, Iran, Libya, and last but not least Sudan Incidentally, as I'm sure you know, the Sudanese government is responsible for Africa's worst humanitarian catastrophe, in Darfur and it may have been stopped if it had not been for Russia and China continually blocking sanctions on it. To watch a video regarding the airplane, click here.