Russia – USA, missile defense system: to be continued

The final decision about the beginning of technical discussions between Russia and the US on the issue of missile defense will be adopted only after the NATO summit to be held in May in Chicago, assistant of the US Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs, Madeleine Kridon said, RIA Novosti reports.

Russian Vice Premier Dmitry Rogozin said today that Russia will not allow any country in the world to create a missile defense system which could somehow hinder the strategic balance.

In 2010 Russia and NATO agreed to cooperate on the European missile defense project, but negotiations stalled due to the refusal of the US to provide any legal guarantees that the deployed system will not target Russia's nuclear objects.

At the end of November 2011 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced measures that Russia will take in response to the deployment of the US missile defense system in Europe in a special statement. In particular, he ordered the Defense Ministry and Armed Forces to activate the radar warning system for missiles in Kaliningrad. He also decided to strengthen the protection of objects of strategic nuclear importance and equip strategic ballistic missiles with interception systems.
Director of the Center for Public Policy Research Vladimir Yevseyev gave his expert opinion on the situation to VK. He said that, judging from the international conference on the subject that has recently taken place in Moscow, the US is not willing to provide any legally-binding security assurances that the missile defense system will not be aimed against Russia. According to Vladimir Yevseyev, the Moscow conference has not reached its goals.

He is convinced that one should understand that the US Senate will never provide any legally-binding guarantees about missile defense systems not being directed against Russia and the Baltic states will also refuse to do it. Yevseyev stressed that both parties are trying to impose conditions which are a priori unacceptable for them.