RUSSIA - Dec. 13 - Putin Calls US Move 'Mistake'.

In a nation-wide TV address, Pres. Putin says the US move to withdraw from the ABM Treaty is "a mistake" but it does not threaten Moscow. While saying that Bush's decision is not unexpected, Putin repeats his position that the treaty is a cornerstone of world security. He adds: "Today, when the world has confronted new threats, one should not allow a legal vacuum in the sphere of strategic stability. One should not undermine the regime of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. I think that the current level of bilateral relations between the Russian Federation and the US should not only be retained, but also used in order to work out the new framework of strategic relationship as soon as possible". Putin stresses what Moscow has stated during the earlier negotiations over the treaty: a US pledge to reduce its nuclear arsenal from the current level of more than 6,000 warheads to 2,000 warheads or less. Russian military planners want to reach a similar level. That is enough, Putin says, to ensure that Moscow could penetrate any American missile shield if need be.

(Since Putin set the Kremlin on a westward course after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, seeking closer ties to NATO and dropping any objection to the placement of US troops in Central Asia, it has been clear that Moscow believes that need will never arise. Putin does not say whether the White House's withdrawal from the treaty would hinder or halt that move westward or end the warming of relations with the US. But some other officials have no doubt that it would). Duma's military expert Alexei Arbatov said: "Before Sept. 11, such a decision might be considered as something which was to be expected sooner or later. But after Sept. 11, it is an extremely disappointing and unexpected gesture. To put it figuratively, after the tragedy of Sept. 11 Russia extended its hand full-length to meet the United States in the spirit of co-operation and even mutual alliance. And yesterday and today, the United States has spat into that extended hand". Arbatov said the US exit from the treaty was a victory for an "extremely conservative, very arrogant" political faction that continues to view Moscow as a threat to US security. "The victory of this group will encourage in Russia the group which says that you cannot trust the US", he said. "Certainly this group will be greatly fortified in Russia and will expert very strong pressure on President Putin to slow down or even freeze the co-operation with the United States in Afghanistan and elsewhere, on questions of the struggle against international terrorism and the struggle against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction". Another legislator and former ambassador to Washington Vladimir Lukin quoted Talleyrand to assess the White House action, saying: "It is worse than a crime. It is a blunder". He said he could find no reasonable explanation for the US to leave the missile treaty now, when ordinary Russians were beginning to warm once more towards the notion of a Russian-US alliance. Nor will it help Putin domestically, he said. "Those leftist forces which traditionally bear some suspicion towards Washington now can begin to think their suspicions are reasonable".