TODAY: Putin declares onset of new arms race; Sergei Ivanov gives “conciliatory” speech. Putin’s Playground? Human rights issues; Aleksanyan moved to a specialized clinic. Russia to write off Iraqi debt; Japan angry over violation of airspace. President Vladimir Putin has “used one of the last major speeches of his presidency” to declare the onset of a “new arms race“, that would defend Russia from unnamed foreign powers who, he claimed, were bent on controlling the world’s natural resources. Putin’s statements were indirectly tempered by First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who yesterday said the West need not fear Russia’s growing economic and political clout. One UK journalist, in a piece entitled “Putin’s Playground”, says that the fusion of political and economic power in Russia is complete.