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NATO Activates ’Interim BMD,’ Tells Russia to Shove It
22 May 2012
In the spirit of the London Economist’s lunatic dismissal of Russian warnings, the NATO Summit in Chicago over the weekend declared that the European Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system to be in "interim operation," although it would be willing to continue discussions with the Russians. As NATO Director General Fogh Rasmussen put it at a press conference today, "of course that can’t be blocked by Russia. It’s a NATO decision. Having said that, we have invited Russia to co-operate on missile defence and this invitation still stands." The only response available from Russian officials as of Monday came from Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council. According to Ria Novosti, she said, "In response to our strong demand to provide the Russian Federation legal guarantees that the system will not be aimed at Russia, we have received no guarantees." Russia has not closed the issue and is in ongoing dialog with NATO, she added. Moscow has often heard assurances that the European missile defense system is not aimed against it, she said, adding that "we will not be guided by empty declarations but by the systems military-technical specifications. "So far no one has provided us any serious arguments in favor of placing missile defense elements in Europe near the Russian borders," Matviyenko said. Ria Novosti then recapitulates the Makarov warnings from May 3. |