Azernews.Az

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that the United States' plans to station missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe were aimed "to deter Russia", but not to shoot down Iranian missiles as claimed by Washington.
"We have substantial estimates that their goal is to create a system aiming not to ward off potential threats from Iran but to restrain Russia," Lavrov told the Moscow daily Vremya Novostei. "We are ready to share the objectives declared by the U.S., but to accomplish them, the U.S. is using methods that lead us to believe that the goal is absolutely different."
The United States is looking to locate radars and interceptor missiles in the Czech Republic and Poland to protect itself against missile attacks from what it calls "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea. Russian President Vladimir Putin has instead offered to the United States to jointly operate the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan. While the U.S. made clear it was ready to cooperate with Russia, it said the offer was an addition rather than a replacement for its missile shield plan. Washington's latest proposals on missile defense were dismissed by Moscow as an attempt to unilaterally station missile defense elements in Europe.
"If accepted, this proposal will lead to our becoming an ally of the U.S. and Europe in the area of strategic stability, with other countries joining in…We are still hopeful that this approach will go down well, although chances for this to happen are dwindling.
"The American side is opting for unilateral methods, while ignoring our concerns, although they are absolutely legitimate and have been laid out with utmost sincerity," Lavrov said.
Such statements have already been made by top Russian officials in the past. At the time missile defense was just gaining worldwide attention, President Putin warned that Moscow would deliver "an asymmetric response" to US plans for a European shield that it deems a threat. Analysts say the retaliation would involve creating ballistic missiles. Russia has conducted tests on such intercontinental rockets using a missile that took off from the Plesetsk space center and hit a target 7,000 km away a few minutes later.
Russian experts believe that the thermonuclear ballistic missile RS-24 is capable of bypassing any missile defense system. The Russian military plans to put the new weapon to use in 2009. RS-24 is expected to replace the Soviet-era Stillet and Satna missile systems.