MOSCOW - Russia’s top military officer has threatened to carry out a preemptive strike on US-led NATO missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe if Washington goes ahead with its controversial plan to build a missile shield.
President Dmitry Medvedev said last year that Russia would retaliate militarily if it does not reach an agreement with the United States and NATO on the missile defense system.
Nikolai Makarov, chief of general staff, went even further Thursday.
“A decision to use destructive force preemptively will be taken if the
situation worsens,’’ he said at a summit attended by top US and NATO
officials.
US missile defense plans in Europe have been one of the touchiest subjects in US-Russian relations for years.
Moscow rejects Washington’s claim that the missile defense plan is solely to deal with any Iranian missile threat and has voiced fears it will eventually become powerful enough to undermine Russia’s nuclear deterrent. Moscow has proposed running the missile shield jointly with NATO, but the alliance has rejected that proposal.
Makarov’s statement Thursday does not seem to imply an immediate threat, but aims to put extra pressure on Washington to agree to Russia’s demands.
The two-day conference in Moscow is the last major Russia-US meeting about military issues before a NATO summit in Chicago later this month. Russia has not yet said whether it will send top officials.
Related: I'll Meet You in Chicago
No I won't.
Officials talked about the high level of distrust between the two sides.
“We can’t just reject the distrust that has been around for decades and become totally different people,’’ Russian deputy defense minister Anatoly Antonov said to US and NATO officials.
US State Department special envoy Ellen Tauscher responded that neither country can afford another arms race.
That's a non sequitur if I've ever seen one.
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