Programs: Spotlight, 13 November, 2008

New arms race?

State Duma deputy and former Russian Secretary of the Security Council, Andrey Kokoshin

1945 - Born in Moscow
1969 - Graduates, Moscow Bauman Higher Technical School
1974 - Researcher, Institute of American and Canadian Studies, Moscow
1982 - PhD in history of science
1984 - Deputy director, Institute of American and Canadian Studies, Moscow
1989 - Member, USSR Academy of Sciences
1992 - First Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation
1996 - Member, Governmental Committee on Defence Spending
1997 - Appointed Secretary of the Defence Council
1997 - Appointed State Military Inspector and Head of State Military Inspectorate of the President of Russia
1998 - Appointed Secretary of the Security Council of Russia
2003 - Chairman, Committee of CIS and Russian diaspora relations
2008 - First Deputy Chairman, State Duma Committee on Science and Science Intensive Technology

Today we will talk about the Strategic balance in Europe. In his first state-of-the nation address, President Medvedev said that Russia might deploy missiles in its most western region of Kaliningrad in response to the U.S. anti-missile defence deployment plans in Europe. This was announced on the day Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential election. Were the Russian concerns heard by both the Bush administration and by the President-elect? We’ll be talking about it with a State Duma deputy and former Russian Secretary of the Security Council, Andrey Kokoshin.