US Assistant Secretary of State for Verification, Compliance, and Implementation, Rose Gottemoeller, said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta that Russia should start negotiations with the US instead of waiting for legal guarantees that the European missile shield would not be used against it. Russian concerns with the fourth stage of development of the anti-missile systems are understandable, she added.
The US official emphasized that Washington will not grant any legal guarantees.
Discussions of the US anti-missile systems in Europe intensified in mid-November after an interview with Wendy Sherman, US Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs. The US say that legal guarantees for Russia would be inappropriate because the issue concerns NATO members. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that it does not see US readiness for compromise, Russian representative to NATO says that the talks have reached a stalemate and Moscow will not make concessions.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia may cancel the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and cancel disarmament.
Vladimir Yevseyev, Director of the Center for Socio-Political Studies, told Vestnik Kavkaza that the Russian attitude is explained by failed negotiation of Medvedev and Obama at the APEC summit in Honolulu in November.
The expert doubts the need to expect changes in the Russian policy at least until inauguration of a new Russian president in May 2012. Yevseyev believes that prospects will be more clear depending on whether the new president attends the NATO summit in Chicago or not. Otherwise negotiations may be frozen by a year.
