Demonstrators hold flags and placards during an anti-war demonstration in central Warsaw, March 24, 2007. (Katarina Stoltz/Reuters)
Posted on 03/27/2007 7:29:08 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BERLIN (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in central Europe would undermine global non-proliferation efforts and demanded serious discussions on the issue with Washington.
"These plans will effectively remove the possibility of dealing with the threat to the nuclear non-proliferation regime with diplomatic means," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wrote in the German newspaper Handelsblatt.
The United States wants to deploy a radar system in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland by 2011-12. It says the system would counter threats from so-called "rogue states" like Iran and North Korea.
Tehran denies Western accusations it is secretly developing nuclear weapons in violation of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. It accuses Western powers of hypocrisy in continuing to develop and modernise their own nuclear systems.
Russia, which sees the missile shield as an encroachment on its former sphere of influence, has accused Washington of using Cold War tactics to persuade Europe to host the system.
"What risks do we see in this U.S. project? In the first place, it will lead to an erosion of strategic stability. Also the balance in global politics can be put in danger," Lavrov said in the article, due to be published on Wednesday.
Briefings
The United States says the project is not aimed at Russia.
But Lavrov made it clear Moscow believes the missile shield may one day be used for offensive weapons.
"The missile shafts needed for the interceptor missiles copy in a dangerous way the facilities for launching intercontinental ballistic missiles. What will find its way into these shafts in five to 10 years," Lavrov said.
Earlier this month U.S. Lieutenant General Henry Obering, director of the Missile Defense Agency, told reporters in Berlin recently that the missile shield facilities were purely defensive and incompatible with offensive weapons.
The United States says it has repeatedly informed Russia of the plans in nearly a dozen briefings since last year. But the Russian foreign minister said Moscow needed more than that.
"At a minimum, we need to have a serious debate about the fundamental issue and not just briefings which provide no answers to specific questions," Lavrov said.
Demonstrators hold flags and placards during an anti-war demonstration in central Warsaw, March 24, 2007. (Katarina Stoltz/Reuters)
Let that putinoid go up his own derriere - and stay there.
Get me Premier Kissoff on the Red Phone !
Russia is still sore that it lost the Cold War. It's not more subtle than that.
Russia is just upset that their vast, albeit inferior, stockpiles of nuclear weapons are about to be rendered obsolete. They are about to go back to their original station as low-second high-third world country.
Pelosi's Pinko "Pals"
Anti war protesters during U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing discussing the firing of U.S. Attorneys and the interviewing of White House staff members on that subject on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 22, 2007. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES)
This shield is very smart on GWB's part, Star Wars pressured the Soviet, and Saudi Arabia banrupted them, Afghanistan dragged them down.
Now Iran is the target, this may stop Russia from providing nuke tech to the Iranians, the Saudis have threatened to use the oil bomb, and Iraq is our current fight.
Same same.
Quote: "Russia, which sees the missile shield as an encroachment on its former sphere of influence, has accused Washington of using Cold War tactics to persuade Europe to host the system. "
Yep, Russsia is sore about the Cold War allright. The above quote from the article says it all. Russia basically thinks that its former sphere of influence should be its current sphere of influence . . . by default. Amazing, Putin wants to pretend the Soviet Union never collapsed. I wonder how long before he claims East Berlin is in the Russian sphere of influence.
If my enemy had all the destructive power of the universe at his disposal, I would want to talk also.
Too bad about Russia,, so much potential wealth for all to share in natural resources, technologies, if I read them right, they have made progress but a lot has been lost and looted along the way. Old habits die hard,, so do czars.. Putin is in a tight spot of his own making, He's no Boris Yeltsin, Thank Goodness, I think. ;-)
Oh I'm all for "talks" and I think we should give them a list of our demands while we're at it.
Russia has never had the benefit of private enterprise so its doubtful they'll ever be much more than dictatorship of some form or another. The Chinese, on the other hand, have always been traders, store keepers and bankers. My dad's theory was that the PRC wouldn't remain Communist for more than two generations while the Rooskies were doomed to follow one bad boy after another.
More bad news for the Ruskies, thanks to Ronald Wilson Reagan! Way to go, SDI!
The Communist Manifesto is/has been enacted by law in the United States completely 100%..
Who do you say WON, again?..
Where you been?... Just wake up from a coma?...
You can either elaborate on that, apologize, or perhaps check into a mental care facility. I'm kinda indifferent.
And such a utopia it is. They just want a seat and bleat out of national pride. If they'd stop drinking and aborting themselves to death, they might be something thirty years from now.
Smarter midterm money is on Chinese influence.
Sounds remarkably like when Ron Reagan went to talk to Gorby: the Russians can't afford this arms race, so we need to escalate it even further, and once again drive a corrupt regime from power.
"by default. Amazing " ... just like Liberals/Democrats/Commies/MSM they arrogantly think that any kind of power is their birth right by default.
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