Moscow to Welcome U.S. Decision not to Deploy 4th Stage of Missile Shield in Europe – Expert

Patriot Missile Launch file photo

(Interfax – Moscow, March 18, 2013) Washington’s decision not to deploy the last elements of its missile shield in Europe should be welcomed in Russia, Chairman of Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Fyodor Lukyanov, said.

“The Russian side should in general welcome this step, whatever stands behind it. At the same time, I think and judging by the reaction of Russia, there will be no fundamental change in Russia’s attitude to the missile shield issue,” Lukyanov told Interfax on Monday.

Lukyanov said that the U.S. refusal to fulfill the fourth stage to deploy its missile shield in Europe was in line with the policy to eliminate irritants between the two countries of U.S. President Barack Obama.

“It means that it is better to avoid conflict issues when possible, since the so-called fourth stage of his missile shield system in Europe caused the greatest concern among the Russian military. The stage was to be deployed by 2018 and included interceptors in Poland, which hypothetically could have affected Russia’s nuclear containment capability,” the official told Interfax.

At the same time, the missile shield issue is gradually losing the focus of negotiators and politicians. “The discussion intensity it had two to three years ago, when Russia proposed to sign a missile shield agreement, judicial guarantees, remains verbal but it has lost its fundamental priority because the two sides have made political decisions,” Lukyanov said.

Lukyanov said that regardless of alterations in the missile shield timeframe, form and volume, the United States would not give up the project and the idea to build the missile shield remained.

“In this situation the Russian side will proceed from the fact that it is necessary to have nuclear arsenal capable of repelling any U.S. missile shield, because the idea remains and there is not a chance it could be canceled. Which means that stake will be placed on the arsenal’s modernization with necessary financing. Russia in unlikely to back out of this,” Lukyanov said.

The U.S. plans to deploy additional ground-based interceptors (GBI) in Alaska and California pose no threat to Russia, the official said.

“As to the missiles in Alaska, China should be the first to worry about them, which it is starting to do. Today, this poses to problem to Russia, to the Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles,” Lukyanov said.

Washington’s decision not to deploy last elements of its missile shield in Europe was motivated by the U.S. own agenda, not Russia’s stance on the missile shield issue, Kommersant newspaper wrote on Monday.

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