Russian Foreign Ministry's Military Threat to U.S.

A few hours after the anti-missile agreement that Moscow has been expecting with fear was signed between the U.S. and the Czech Republic, the Russian foreign ministry issued a furious statement. In the first few lines of the statement, the foreign ministry threatened to start communicating with Washington not in a diplomatic fashion, but with military-technical means if a U.S. strategic anti-missile shield starts to be deployed. The foreign ministry diplomats have no doubt that placing a U.S. strategic arsenal close to Russian borders might be used to weaken its own defense system. In this case, the ministry logically concluded, Moscow will have no other choice but to take adequate measures to compensate for the new threats to its national security. The statement underlines that Russia became trapped in this corner, left with no other choice.

The foreign ministry noted that the signing of the agreement was not a surprise since it was announced in advance. “[The] current U.S. administration is using spurious missile threats from Iran as an excuse for deploying the third region of its global missile defense system. Moreover, this is happening despite serious divisions in the Czech society, and it surely does not add security either to the Czech Republic or to Europe as a whole.” The diplomats were also disappointed by the fact that the Russian alternative of creating a collective missile shield was basically ignored. Their arguments were heard but not taken into consideration by the American side.

Besides, “it is regrettable that despite a series of contacts, some of them at a very high level where it was discussed that the missile shield will not be used against Russia, it is hard to point out any real progress on this issue.” On the contrary, “the measures for transparency and control which were offered earlier and which could lessen Russian concerns were recalled by the Americans. This undermines an agreement between Russian and American presidents, which was enforced in a declaration on April 6, 2008.”

The foreign ministry said it would closely monitor developments but would remain open to constructive talks on issues of the tracking radar system and of strategic stability as a whole. It also added that in any case, Russia would base its opinion on necessary defense of its national security, as reported by ITAR-TASS.