According to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, U.S. plans to build an anti-missile shield in Europe are responsible for the recent standstill in nuclear arsenal reduction talks between the two countries. Since the recent expiration of the Cold War-era Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1991 (dubbed “Start I”), the United States and Russia have been working to create a successor agreement that would address issues of arsenal reduction. But this week, Putin asserted that the United States’s plans to build a sea-based missile defense shield in Europe were throwing a wrench in current arms negotiations. At a recent press conference, when asked about the greatest problem hindering the adoption of a new Start treaty, Putin said, “The problem is that our American partners are building an anti-missile shield and we are not building one. By building such an umbrella over themselves, our [U.S.] partners could feel themselves fully secure and will do whatever they want, which upsets the balance.” Putin added that “to preserve the balance, we must develop offensive weapons systems.” Earlier this year, the Obama administration withdrew U.S. plans to build a land-based missile defense system in Eastern Europe after Russia voiced its displeasure. However, the United States has remained committed to developing a sea-based system. Throughout recent Start negotiations, Russia has pushed for more explicit language linking offensive and defensive systems, the topic of which was part of a joint declaration delivered by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev this past July in Moscow.
On Wednesday, tens of thousands of government supporters in Iran marched in cities throughout the country in a show of solidarity with the current regime and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The marches, which were reportedly orchestrated by the government itself, were meant to counter last weekend’s anti-government protests, in which eight people were reportedly killed. In response to last weekend’s protests, the Iranian government released a press statement claiming, “The offensive [anti-government] slogans have made the pious Iranian nation sad and the Zionist world happy and in practice they, as pawns of the enemies, have furnished a red carpet for the foreigners who are aiming at the nation’s security.” At Wednesday’s pro-government rallies, attendees reportedly chanted “Death to opponents!” in response to earlier anti-government chants of “Death to the dictator!”
The Ugandan rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), has reportedly set up camp in Sudan, in the country’s western region of Darfur. According to a statement released by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), a political entity that governs Sudan’s semi-autonomous southern region, members of the LRA have been spotted in the southern Darfuri province of Bahr-El- Ghazal. In a press release, the SPLA said: “The LRA is re-grouping and training in Sudan in Dimo in Southern Darfur. This is a fact known to the intelligence community—in the area of Kaskagi in the northwest of Darfur.” News of the LRA’s migration into western Sudan comes amid reports by Ugandan military personnel, in which the Ugandan government claims to have reduced the manpower of the LRA over the course of 2009 through targeted assassinations and rescue missions designed to free the rebel group’s captive prisoners. However, the Ugandan military’s achievements were unable to stop much of the destruction wreaked by the rebels over the past 10 months: according to the latest report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the rebel group was responsible for 1,200 deaths and 1,400 abductions, most of which happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo, just across the Ugandan border.