Russians fully briefed on missile plans, US official says

Brussels - Russia has been kept fully informed of United States plans to site anti-missile systems in Europe, a US official said Wednesday as Moscow ramped up its criticism of the plans. The US is to site SM-3 anti-missile missiles in Romania from 2015 and in Poland from 2018, a move which the chief of the Russian general staff, General Nikolai Makarov, said Tuesday was plainly directed at Russia.

The Russian government "has been briefed on the phased adaptive approach (of missile deployment) very often ... We keep a very close conversation with our Russian friends," US Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher said.

The US government maintains that the deployment is part of a broader plan to set up NATO-wide defenses against a possible nuclear strike from a Middle Eastern state, such as Iran.

Tauscher insisted that the US plan was entirely open and public, with no hidden agenda or secret details.

"It is an unclassified document which anyone can download, and I'm sure our Russian friends have," she said.

At the same time, she insisted that talks between the US and Russia to draw up a successor to the START agreement on nuclear disarmament were moving smoothly into their final phase. "We think the finish line is in sight," Tauscher said.

Makarov on Tuesday suggested that Russia would only sign the new START agreement if the US dropped its missile defence plans.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/308477,russians-fully-briefed-on-missile-plans-us-official-says.html.