en.rian.ru:80/russia/20070927/81302492.html
27/09/2007 14:17 (Adds details, Popovkin quotes in paragraphs 3-8)
MOSCOW, September 27 (RIA Novosti) – Russia is ready to take appropriate measures if weapons are deployed in space, the commander of the Russian Space Forces said Thursday.
“Should any country deploy weapons in space, then the laws of armed warfare are such that retaliatory weapons are certain to appear,” Col. Gen. Vladimir Popovkin said.
He said Russia and China have drafted an international declaration on the non-deployment of weapons in space and sent it to the UN.
“It is necessary to establish the rules of the game in space,” he said, adding that the deployment of weapons in space could have unpredictable consequences, since such weapons are “very complex systems.”
“A sizable war could break out,” the commander said.
He said space must not be the sphere of interests of any one country.
“We do not want to fight in space, and we do not want to call the shots there either, but we will not permit any other country to do so,” he said.
Popovkin also said that Russia has an integrated missile attack warning system, covering the country’s entire territory.
Russia calls on UN to keep space weapon free
06/09/2007 14:39 MOSCOW, September 6 (RIA Novosti) – Russia is to put forward a draft resolution to the United Nations banning the deployment of weapons in outer space, a Russian UN mission official statement said Thursday.
The resolution entitled, Transparency and Confidence Building Measures in Outer Space Activities, was submitted to the UN five years ago and proposed a ban on the deployment of all types of weapons in space.
Russia said that the treaty should set forth the following obligations, a ban on all objects capable of carrying weapons from orbiting Earth, no deployment and installation of such weapons in space, including other planets, a ban on the threat or use of force against space objects, and providing assistance for any activity banned under the agreement.
The United States is insisting that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST), which currently forms the basis of international space law, ratified by Russia, the U.K., the U.S. and a further 27 countries, provides sufficient guarantees against placing weapons of mass destruction in space. But analysts say that the OST treaty does not ban the U.S or any other country from putting weapons into orbit, as long as the weapons are for peaceful purposes.
Recently the U.S. said it favored the idea of possessing an advanced space defense potential to counter threats, following an incident in January when China tested space weapons, destroying one of its old meteorological satellites with a medium-range ballistic missile.
China has also joined Russia in demanding that the United States observe the treaty and not place any weapons in space.
The 62nd session of the UN General Assembly will start on September 18. The leaders of 192 states will make speeches from September 25. Russia will be represented by the Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
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