Russia Rages Against U.S. Missile Defense Plans

Russian officials and analysts yesterday blasted U.S. plans to deploy missile defenses in Eastern Europe, questioning the sincerity of the Bush administration and the nature of the actual weapons to be installed (see GSN, July 23).

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the matter with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday in Singapore.

“We emphasized the necessity of actually bringing some clarity to the situation around the missile shield, in so much as the promises made to us by our U.S. colleagues for transparency and building trust have not as yet materialized into anything concrete and tangible,” he told reporters.

Citing concerns over Iran’s future ballistic missile capability, the Bush administration has sought to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic. Russian requests for confidence-building measures, such as allowing Russian officials to monitor the U.S. facilities on site, have so far been rebuffed (RIA Novosti, July 23).

One analyst suggested that the U.S. plans are actually an effort to deploy nuclear-armed missiles closer to Russian territory.

“I cannot see Iran having intercontinental missiles in the nearest future. Besides Iranian leaders are not so crazy as to attack the U.S. with one or two intercontinental missiles,” said Alexander Khramchikhin of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis.

“This is why there are suspicions that the silos that are being built will contain not antiballistic missiles, but medium-range missiles with nuclear warheads,” he added.

Another analyst was less dramatic, but still questioned U.S. motives.

“The U.S. has been deliberately misleading throughout the process of NATO expansion,” said Alexander Pikayev of the Institute of International Economic Relations. “The U.S. is going to build missile silos dozens of kilometers from our border. If they wanted to protect themselves from an Iranian attack, they would build silos closer to Iran” (Interfax, July 23).