Azernews.Az

Russia has warned it would withdraw its proposal on the use of a radar in Azerbaijan jointly with the United States and NATO if Washington sticks to its plans to station a missile shield in Europe, a Russian military official has said.
Lieut.-Gen. Yevgeni Buzhinsky, deputy head of the Russian Defense Ministry's Main Department for International Cooperation, said Moscow's proposal was an alternative for stationing US radars in Eastern Europe, not a supplement as previously asserted by the U.S.
The Gabala radar station, leased to Russia for $7m a year, allows to track down air space for a distance of 6,000 km. President Vladimir Putin in June 2007 offered to the U.S. to jointly use the Soviet-era facility as an alternative to Washington's plan to station missile interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic.
The U.S. did not reject the proposal but made it clear it did not see Putin's idea as a substitute for missile defense elements in Eastern Europe.
Buzhinsky said Russia was wary that U.S. plans were an initial stage in building a global missile defense network and that Washington would be able eventually to deploy such elements anywhere in Europe - in Britain, Norway and other countries. Furthermore, the Russian Defense Ministry does not consider the steps being taken by Washington as an absolute necessity and deems US reasoning that they aim to ward off a potential threat from Iran as contrived.
"I don't understand the readiness of such a pragmatic nation as America to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in intercepting non-existent missiles," he said, adding that Iran possessed no missiles with a span of 4,000-5,000 km, let alone inter-continental ballistic missiles that could reach US territory.
The U.S. denies its planned European shield is aimed against Russia. But Moscow opposes the initiative and instead offers to establish a collective response system.