U.S. Weighs Halt to Talks With Russia On Nuclear Arms Curbs

Via WSJ.com -

The Bush administration, escalating its response to Russia's actions in Georgia, has placed under review talks with Moscow focused on missile defense and nuclear-weapons disarmament, according to U.S. officials.

A delay would cast uncertainty over the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or Start, a successor to Cold War era arms-reduction agreements that expires at the end of 2009. The treaty restricts the number of long-range nuclear weapons each side is allowed to have.

The rethink comes amid a rising war of words between Russia and the West over Moscow's incursion into Georgia and its decision to recognize two breakaway Georgian regions. In an interview Thursday with CNN, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the Bush administration might have pushed Georgia into battle to deflect attention from the U.S. economy and help a presidential candidate, presumably Republican Sen. John McCain.

"The suspicion arises that someone in the United States created this conflict deliberately to create tension and help one of the candidates in the U.S. presidential campaign," Mr. Putin said. The former Russian president said the resulting "hurrah-patriotism" would "unify the nation around certain political forces," adding: "I'm surprised that what I'm telling you surprises you. It's all on the surface, actually."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino called Mr. Putin's claims "patently false" and said he must be getting "really bad advice" from his defense officials.

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I guess the US staged columns of Russian tanks on the border before the invasion as well...please. The US and the West are not totally free of responsible for this violent outbreak, clearly....but point the finger @ the American political process is just silly. No one is going to fall for that.

I have to respectfully disagree with Miss Perino, I think Putin's defense officials had a plan and are sticking to it...so far the chips are falling just like Putin wants.

Either way, I personally think we should continue talks on the reduction of nuclear arm stockpiles.

Global reduction talks should not be derailed by one single event...they are just too important.