Russians Think Obama Could Kill Planned European Missile Defense Without Seeming To Cave To Moscow
Russia, testing the newly-inaugurated U.S. President Obama, has anew offered a deal: if the United States caves and abandons plans to build a European Missile Defense (EMD) system, Russia won’t continue its threatened move to deploy Iskander missiles near Poland, the official Chinese Xinhua News agency reported.
For years, Russia vehemently opposed U.S. plans to install the EMD, with a radar in the Czech Republic and interceptors in ground silos in Poland, to defeat enemy missiles launched from Middle Eastern nations such as Iran.
Russian leaders threatened to install Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad if the interceptors are installed in Poland by The Boeing Co. [BA].
But now Russians are saying they won’t immediately deploy Iskanders, because the Americans aren’t immediately deploying the EMD.
The softer approach may give Democrat Obama a way to kill the EMD system, as some Democrats in Congress would like, without appearing to knuckle under to bullying by Moscow.
Separately, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told Congress that Russians are showing interest in participating in the EMD system if it is built by sharing radar sensor data. (Please see separate story and transcript in this issue.)
While NATO approved of the EMD plan to protect Europe, the U.S. Congress led by Democrats has imposed restrictions slowing any construction of the EMD system. Congress has insisted on full Czech and Polish parliamentary approval of the EMD, and testing of the EMD interceptors that would take two extra years, before any EMD construction work can begin at the Czech and Polish sites.
Although the upper house in the Czech parliament approved the EMD, the lower house has yet to act, and the Communist Party in the Czech Republic staged a protest against the EMD, the International Herald Tribune reported.
Protesters also are preparing a letter to Obama, citing their reasons for opposing the EMD.
Its interceptors would be two-stage versions of the three-stage interceptors currently used by the existing Ground-based Midcourse Defense system in Alaska and California, also made by Boeing.
However, if Obama permits the Russians to push him into abandoning the EMD, that will leave him having to explain not only to Americans, but also to Europeans, how the increasing threat from Iran will be countered.
Iran continues producing nuclear materials, defying world opinion and United Nations actions, in a program that Western military analysts fear will produce nuclear weapons.
As well, Iran has launched multiple missiles in a salvo test; launched a missile from a submerged submarine; and announced plans for a space program that would involve much the same technology as an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking targets anywhere in Europe or the United States.
Key questions are just how little time the West may have before Iran develops nuclear weapons and missiles to transport them, and just how reliable the Iranian military may be controlled in handling nuclear missiles. (Please see separate story in this issue.)