Agence France-Presse, Russia is not satisfied with written U.S. offers aimed at allaying its concerns over planned missile defenses in eastern Europe, news agencies quoted a foreign ministry source as saying Nov. 23.
“They have sent concrete proposals. We are continuing to study them, but our first impression is that they do not meet our expectations. This is not what was promised orally” in recent talks on the subject, the source said.
The comments were in marked contrast to remarks Nov. 22 by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said he discussed the issue with U.S. President George W. Bush “the other day,” and “it seems that our concerns are being listened to.”
The foreign ministry source said the written offers from Washington “do not correspond” with proposals made orally by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates in talks in Moscow last month.
Rice and Gates discussed the U.S. missile defense project with Putin and with their Russian counterparts and U.S. officials said afterwards that they had made several proposals designed to ease Russian concern.
Those included a proposal to delay activation of the missile defense system until Washington and Moscow were in agreement on “definitive proof” of missile threats from Iran or elsewhere.
They also included a plan to station Russian liaison officers at proposed U.S. missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, as long as the host countries agreed to this.
The U.S. plan calls for setting up a powerful early-warning radar station in the Czech Republic to assist in guidance of interceptor missiles, 10 of which would be based in Poland.
Putin has compared the U.S. plan to set up the system in close proximity to Russia to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the Soviet Union began deploying nuclear-capable missiles in Cuba.
The U.S. has rejected the comparison, as well as Moscow’s assertion that the missile defense system is a security threat to Russia.
Russia, however, says it will be forced to take “adequate” steps to protect its security if the U.S. goes ahead with the plan.
On Nov. 14, General Vladimir Zaritsky, the head of Russia’s missile and artillery forces, raised the possibility that Moscow could respond to the U.S. plan by deploying missiles of its own in neighboring Belarus.
In his meeting with Rice and Gates last month, Putin also raised the possibility that Russia would withdraw from a Cold War-era treaty limiting medium-range missile deployments if Washington went ahead with its plan.
The U.S. says its missile defense system would be designed to protect itself and allies in Europe from growing missile threats from “rogue states,” particularly Iran.
Russia says the system would threaten its own security. It has expressed similar concerns about other moves since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, including the expansion of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance to Russian borders.
