United States plans to set up an anti-missile system in the Czech Republic are ”a clear threat” to Russia, a Russian general said Monday, quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency.
”Our analysis shows that the location of the US base would be a clear threat to Russia,” General Vladimir Popovkin, who commands a division of the Russian army in charge of space technology, was quoted as saying.
He rejected US claims that the system, which US officials have said could be split between the Czech Republic and Poland, is aimed at warding off attack from North Korea or Iran.
”It’s doubtful that Iranian or North Korean rockets would go across Poland or the Czech Republic. The radar in the Czech Republic would be able to monitor rocket installations in central Russia and the Northern Fleet,” he said.
The new defence system would include 10 interceptor missiles and a radar.
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek announced on Saturday that Washington has asked to start talks on locating part of the system on Czech soil.
Reports in the Polish media cited unnamed diplomats as saying the US had also made a proposal to Poland at the end of last week.
State Department official Daniel Fried said in an interview published in Poland on Monday that the US has entered a ”new phase” of talks on the missile proposal.
”We have held very preliminary technical discussions up to now with the Polish authorities. Now, we are moving into a new phase where we will put forward a very concrete, serious proposal,” Fried, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs, told the Rzeczpospolita daily.
The Polish Foreign Ministry said on Monday that ”diplomatic consultations” had long been under way on the sensitive issue but refused to say whether Poland would agree to house the system.
About two-thirds of Poles are against Poland housing all or part of the US anti-missile defence system, a survey conducted last year showed.
Many in the Czech Republic also oppose it, with several hundred people protesting in Prague on Sunday after the official announcement that Washington was poised to start talks with the government on hosting the radar system. — AFP
