The Kremlin on Wednesday rejected United States proposals aimed at easing concerns over a missile defence system in Europe, and said it would try again to resolve the row once Barack Obama is in the White House.
Russia says the planned US system will threaten its national security and that the administration of George Bush, which leaves office in January, has failed to allay its concerns.
”Russia is ready to cooperate with the United States on European security but considers the proposals that were sent are insufficient,” Itar-Tass news agency quoted an unidentified Kremlin source as saying.
”We will not give our agreement to these proposals and we will speak to the new administration,” said the source, who was quoted by Russia’s three main news agencies, an indication the remarks reflect official policy. The Kremlin press office declined to comment.
The Bush administration ”is intent on putting the new US president in a hopeless situation, so that he should take responsibility for what they concocted without him”, Tass quoted the source as saying.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said last week he planned to deploy missile systems near Poland’s border in retaliation for US plans to install elements of the proposed missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Washington says the missile system is needed to protect the US against missile strikes from what it calls rogue states, specifically Iran.
President-elect Obama has said he would make sure the system had been proven to work before deploying it — a more cautious approach than the Bush administration, which has been pressing to have the system operational as soon as possible.
The US had previously proposed confidence-building measures that included allowing Russian representatives access to sites where the missile system is to be deployed and providing real-time video monitoring of activities at the sites.
Senior US officials said this week they were planning to discuss the proposals with their Russian counterparts soon.
The rejection of Washington’s proposals came on the same day that William Burns, the third-ranking official in the US State Department, was in Moscow for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Burns is the most senior US official to visit Russia since the war in August between Russia and US ally Georgia. No details were available on the outcome of his talks. — Reuters