Russia still has concerns over US missile system

Russia says it still has some 'unanswered questions' regarding the Obama administration's four-stage plan to deploy an alternative missile defense system.

In remarks published on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin still has some serious doubts over Washington's missile program, regardless of the Obama administration's decision to shelve Bush-era plans to deploy an anti-missile system in Europe.

Lavrov, who was addressing senior representatives of the Russian media, said he is particularly concerned over a newly-announced four-stage plan to install an alternative US missile defense shield in Europe by 2020.

The Russian Foreign minister urged Washington to address Moscow's concerns and clarify its missile plans no later than 2018.

“By giving up on missile defense plans, the US has worked out an alternative system that will not create any difficulties linked with the third positioning area at the initial stage," said Lavrov.

"We, nevertheless, want more clarity on the further stages,” Lavrov noted. "We expect to receive a full version [of the pattern] from our American partners."

The US ballistic missile defense (BMD) plan in Eastern Europe has been a subject of fierce debate in recent months, pushing Washington-Moscow relations to the lowest ebb since the Cold War.

Under the Bush administration, Washington had devised plans to station 10 silo-based missiles in Poland and a missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic, allegedly to defend against missile threats from 'rouge' countries.

Over the past months, the Obama administration has strived to employ its plans to install a controversial missile defense system in Europe as an opening gambit to dissuade Russia from supporting Iran in its uranium enrichment.

Washington spearheads accusations that Iran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), seeks nuclear weapons development.

Tehran, however, says it enriches uranium for civilian applications and that it has a right to the technology already in the hands of many others.

In an apparent show of goodwill, the White House unexpectedly announced that it has decided to scrap the Bush-era plans altogether.

The decision initially drew a warm response from Moscow, but later sparked an outcry after revelations that the plans, contrary to Russia's belief, had not been abandoned but had been merely revised and postponed to a later time.

Under the new plan, Washington would replace the land-based sites in Poland and the Czech Republic with a network of sensors and sea-based interceptors and will eventually add land-based interceptors by 2015.

Ukraine and other countries have shown willingness to host the sea-based interceptors -- much to the dismay of the Russian government.

The new US plan "raises more questions than answers," Lavrov said on Friday, during a visit to Moldova for a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of ex-Soviet countries.

He went on to say that although Moscow and Washington have set aside their differences on a wide range of issues, there are clearly some matters “that have yet to be translated into the language of accord.”