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Russia on Combat Alert over NATO Missile Defense

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Volitzer
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« on: December 03, 2011, 03:38:18 pm »

U.S.: Russia won't stop arms shield

WASHINGTON – The U.S. ambassador to NATO on Friday dismissed recent expressions of outrage from Moscow over proposed missile defenses in Europe, saying the NATO deployment will proceed "whether Russia likes it or not."

The ambassador, Ivo Daalder, said the United States was well aware that "there are significant forces within Russia" that believe that the alliance's system of radars and interceptors could blunt Moscow's own arsenal of missiles and thus undermine Russia's strategic deterrent.

Daalder said he would meet officials from Moscow at NATO headquarters in Brussels next week to explain – once again – that the alliance shield is designed solely to defend against a potential missile attack from Iran.

But Daalder also noted that recent complaints, especially from President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, might be motivated by the demands of domestic politics ahead of national elections there. The American commitment to work with NATO allies and deploy the missile shield is founded on a belief that Iran is accelerating its program to field missiles capable of reaching across NATO territory in Europe, Daalder said.

Since President Barack Obama announced new plans for the shield two years ago, Daalder said, "our estimate of the threat has gone up, not down. It is accelerating – this is the Iranian ballistic missile threat – and becoming more severe than even we thought two years ago."

Thus, he said, the United States and its allies remain wholly committed to the program.

"Whether Russia likes it or not, we are about defending NATO-European territory against a growing ballistic missile threat," Daalder said. "We will adapt the timing and the details to that threat, which is why the focus of our joint effort ought to be about how to figure out how to reduce that threat rather than trying to threaten and retaliate for a deployment that has nothing to do with Russia."

Last week, Medvedev threatened that Russia would deploy its own missiles and that it could withdraw from the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty if the United States proceeds with its plans for a missile-defense system in Europe.

Returning to that theme this week, Medvedev dismissed the idea that he was kicking around a political football.

Steven Pifer, an arms control expert who has managed Russia policy from top positions at the State Department and National Security Council, said that some of the tougher language out of Moscow seemed intended less for Washington and more for Russian voters, who head to the polls for parliamentary elections on Sunday. And with presidential elections in both Russia and the United States next year, the volume could grow louder, even though the basic positions in the missile-defense debate have not changed.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/03/4096642/us-russia​-wont-stop-arms-shield.html#ixzz1fT5EXFjR
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