US missile defense poses threat, says Russian military
Blames system for delays on new arms treaty
MOSCOW - US missile defense plans are a threat to Russian national security and have slowed down progress on a new arms control treaty with Washington, Russia’s top military officer said yesterday.
General Nikolai Makarov said a revised US plan to place missiles in Europe undermines Russia’s national defense, rejecting Obama administration promises that the plan is not directed at his country.
“We view it very negatively, because it could weaken our missile forces,’’ Makarov, the chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, said in televised remarks.
Makarov’s comments are the strongest yet on the revamped US missile effort and signal potential new obstacles to an agreement on a nuclear arms reduction accord to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that expired Dec. 5.
The United States has insisted that the missile defense plans should be separate from talks to forge a new agreement on cutting the two nations’ nuclear arsenals. Moscow and Washington hoped that they would sign a new treaty by the end of December, but talks have dragged on.
P.J. Crowley, State Department spokesman, told reporters yesterday that US missile defense moves in Europe are a reaction to Iran’s missile threat and “are in no way directed at Russia.’’ He said US officials have been open about missile defense plans and have talked with Russian officials generally about the issue.
President Obama’s decision to scrap Bush administration plans for missile defense sites designed to shoot down long-range missiles from rogue states such as Iran drew praise from the Kremlin, which had opposed the earlier plan as a threat.
Specialists have said the new plan is less threatening to Russia because it would not initially involve interceptors capable of shooting down Moscow’s intercontinental ballistic missiles.
In December, Moscow urged Washington to share detailed data about the reconfigured sea- and land-based systems to replace the old plans.
Russian officials at first reacted calmly to US plans to deploy Patriot missile systems in Poland, but have grown increasingly critical in recent weeks.
Romania last week approved a proposal to place antiballistic missile interceptors in the country as part of the revamped American missile shield.
Asked yesterday about the plans in Romania and Poland, Makarov called the US missile defense plans a threat.
“The development of missile defense is aimed against the Russian Federation,’’ he said.
Romania’s Foreign Ministry maintained in a document that the proposed system is “strictly defensive . . . it just defends against any attack.’’
No radar would be placed in the country for the missile-defense system and no interceptors would be put on ships in the Black Sea, the ministry said. The ministry also said Russia could participate in the system.
The ministry said the shield would include four phases. First, radar and Standard Missile-3 ballistic missiles would be placed on ships in southeastern Europe, along with a radar base, by 2011.
The second phase, by 2015, would include placing ground interceptors and a new radar base in southeastern Europe.
The third phase would cover Europe by placing ground interceptors in northern Europe and developing new SM-3s to be placed on the ground and on ships by 2018. In the fourth phase, the system would include protection against ICBMs.
