The Situation with the US Missile Defense Has Become Dismal

The Russian deputy defense minister has assessed the condition of the Russian-U.S. “dialogue” on missile defense.

“The situation is dismal in this area.” “The U.S. missile defense proliferation will soon reach a point of no return, and then it will be useless to conduct discussions on the missile defense.” “I do not rule out that… we will have to boost, not cut, our nuclear arsenal.” “This [Russia’s withdrawal from the Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms – KM.RU] could be our retaliatory action.”

All of this has nothing to do with amateur horror stories; these are excerpts from an interview with Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, which have been published at the Kommersant newspaper today. This is the assessment of the present condition of the missile defense talks between Russia, the U.S. and NATO given by the chief negotiator on international military and political security of the Russian Defense Ministry.

The formal reason for the interview was the first anniversary since Russia and the U.S. signed a new treaty on measures for the further reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms, which has been arguably considered the major achievement of the U.S.-Russian “reset.” However, the real assessment of the current situation given by the Russian deputy minister was evoked by the results of the recent annual Munich conference on international security.

The results of the conference are very disappointing for the Russian leadership who, throughout the “reset” years, have attempted to get the consent of the U.S. (which, in fact, is building a missile defense system on its own) to some sort of “equitable” participation of Moscow in the project, or at least a written guarantee that the European missile defense would not be directed against our country.

“The consultations are underway, but I see no light at the end of the tunnel,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in his Munich speech. At the same time the Russian minister stressed that lately we have been involved in consultations rather than full-fledged negotiations.

On his Twitter micro-blog, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin also mentioned the results of the recent Munich conference, where he stressed that the parties failed to find a compromise on this issue. He quoted NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen who said that the alliance will continue to develop a missile defense system, as its leadership “feels a strong responsibility to protect our populations effectively against the missile threat.” “Well, we also feel a responsibility to protect our people from your missile threat and create a reliable aerospace defense,” Rogozin wrote.

Anatoly Antonov also admitted that the negotiations between Russia, the U.S. and NATO have reached a deadlock. “They do not hear us explaining their inability to consider Russia’s interests through the U.S.’ domestic problems. Proposals for cooperation are vague. Russia’s participation in the European missile defense system development is not even up for discussion. Any attempts to prove our willingness to cooperate on the basis of the equal security principle are being rejected and proposals to negotiate the conditions and criteria so that we are not being directed against are not being accepted,” Antonov explained.

“The components of the global U.S. missile defense system in other regions also have anti-Russian potential,” he continued. “A little has been previously said about it, as the main focus was on Europe. Talking about the results of work of U.S. Missile Defense Agency in 2011, its head, General Patrick O’Reilly said that upon the completion of the first phase of the four-phase approach, it became necessary to look at this issue from a new perspective. Integration of the European segment of the anti-missile facilities in Alaska and in the Asia-Pacific Region increased the total potential of the U.S. missile defense.”

“How real and not driven by the election were the president’s statements made in November in response to the ongoing European missile defense proliferation?” a magazine correspondent asked Antonov.

“The above [Russian president’s] measures are thoughtful, well-grounded and supported with resources,” the deputy defense minister confirmed. “All declared actions will be executed,” he continued, “and the pace of their implementation will be based on our assessments of the U.S. missile defense potential.” “Overall, the president said that a possibility to quit the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms would be considered,” the correspondent said. “This is a possible retaliatory action,” Antonov said. “Everybody was warned about it before.”

As one can see, the current condition of the “dialogue” on the missile defense between Russia on one side and the U.S. and its allies on the other side could be adequately described in the proverb “diamonds cut diamonds.” In his Twitter micro-blog, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin assured that the Russian aerospace defense will provide protection against the NATO missile threat to our country. However, the Russian aerospace defense system is actually a project that is only about to be launched.