Ice Hardens as Russian, U.S. Security Officials Wrangle

Russian and U.S. security officials sparred Sunday over Bush administration plans for a national missile defense and Kremlin threats against domestic opponents, prompting warnings that the erstwhile superpower rivals are headed for a new Cold War.

Although delegates to the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy took note of the vast improvements in international relations since the end of totalitarian rule in Moscow, there were expressions of “profound concern” over the direction of U.S.-Russian ties from a broad spectrum of their allies and neighbors.

A day earlier, the elite from Western security and defense circles had politely debated the U.S. missile defense plan, with newly appointed Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld insisting that no one with peaceful intentions should fear the project although even Washington’s European allies made clear that they have reservations.

But as Russia and its Asian neighbors waded into the verbal fray on the second and final day of the conference, it became clear that the worries are global and that many see new and potentially destructive tensions between the United States and Russia.

Russian national security chief Sergei Ivanov set the tone with a speech during which it was difficult to distinguish smiles from bared teeth. After affirming President Vladimir V. Putin’s quest for a strong, democratic country, he then cast the United States and Western Europe as hypercritical, shortsighted and meddling. And he accused the new U.S. administration of provoking a costly arms race with its missile defense project and said the project’s development would scuttle the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty.

“Destruction of the ABM treaty, we are quite confident, will result in the annihilation of the whole structure of strategic stability and create prerequisites for a new arms race--including one in space,” he said.

While Rumsfeld and former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger a day earlier had deemed the ABM treaty “outdated,” Ivanov insisted that the pact remains relevant and a fundamental condition for further nuclear arms reductions.

A senior Chinese foreign policy figure, Mei Zhaorong, also warned Washington that the missile defense plan could lead to fresh global insecurities. India’s national security advisor, Brajesh Mishra, voiced an even graver concern: “It is my personal impression that with this national missile defense, we are starting another Cold War.”

Rather than spend billions on a technologically suspect missile shield, Ivanov suggested, Washington should work with Moscow to diminish the risks of rogue nuclear attacks by instituting tighter export controls to halt proliferation.

That prompted a caustic retort from former U.S. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen, who used his new out-of-government status to its full measure in expressing candid and at times provocative views he could ill afford as a Cabinet member.

“One way to deal with the problem is to stop proliferating. Russia must cease and desist in that regard,” Cohen said, contending that Moscow has a history of controversial technology deliveries to rogue states.

Cohen also lashed out at Ivanov’s claim that U.S. planes exposed Yugoslav civilians and Balkan peacekeepers to dangerous carcinogens by dropping 10 tons of depleted uranium during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.

Noting that health experts have no hard evidence of a link between depleted uranium exposure and cancers, Cohen called Ivanov’s innuendo “a rhetorical act that prompts others,” like inquiries into Russian military aggression in the separatist republic of Chechnya.

Cohen also criticized Russian media--increasingly under Kremlin influence--for suggestions that the August sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine was caused by a U.S. naval provocation.

“The Kursk was a great tragedy. Many, many Russian sailors were doomed to death,” Cohen said. “We continue to see accusations, however faint or indirect, that somehow it was caused by a collision with an American submarine. That again is a complete fabrication.”

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman delivered a more diplomatic but no less dire view of Russia’s drift away from the democratic fold.

“In recent weeks, President Putin has made trips to Cuba, Iraq, Iran--not exactly America’s favorite nations. . . . This week has brought new stories about more harassment of Russia’s dwindling free and independent media,” the Connecticut Democrat said.

While acknowledging that “no single event has done more to expand freedom’s borders and improve our common security than the fall of the Soviet Union,” Lieberman warned Moscow that the Bush administration’s foreign policy team is likely to take a more “arm’s length” approach to Russia. There remains strong bipartisan support for helping Russia reform and prosper, he said, but he quoted Bush’s new national security advisor, Russian scholar Condoleezza Rice, as saying “Russia’s economic future is now in the hands of the Russians,” a statement many have interpreted as heralding less U.S. aid and guidance.

“Assistance will depend on the extent to which the Russian people enjoy their human rights,” Lieberman said. “Our constituents will demand no less.”