MOSCOW. Sept 29 (Interfax-AVN) - Moscow criticizes statements by Czech and Polish officials quoted by Western media as saying that the Czech Republic and Poland are against permanent presence of Russian experts at U.S. missile defense facilities to be deployed in these two countries.
"We would like to say that we do not consider it a subject for bargaining as to whether to admit Russian specialists to U.S. missile defense bases and whether to make this conditional on some reciprocity or not," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary on Saturday.
Moscow has taken note of this statement, it said.
"We regret that our Polish and Czech partners prefer to communicate with us through the media instead of maintaining expert dialogue to eliminate Russia's concerns," it said.
"We would like to point out that the idea of Russian presence (precisely presence rather than inspections) at the U.S. missile defense facilities in the Czech Republic and Poland belongs to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. As the U.S. saw it, the purpose of this presence was to convince Russia that the so-called third phase of the U.S. global missile defense system will not effectively be used against the Russian nuclear deterrence arsenal," it said.
"The U.S. no longer disputes that the third phase of the missile defense system will have technical capacity to intercept Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)," it said.
Gates came up with the idea of Russian presence at the missile defense facilities while visiting Moscow a year ago, "and since then it has been repeatedly modified, assuming increasingly more peculiar formats," it said.
"One of them is the recommendation that Russia itself should come to terms with the Poles and the Czechs about its presence at the U.S. missile defense facilities. It is hard to imagine a more absurd situation, especially considering that, as Czech and Polish negotiators confided to us, the U.S. had not discussed this option with them before," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"Then another proposal was made that presence be replaced by some sort of technical surveillance, for example, using video cameras," it said.
"And finally, Poland and the Czech Republic have demanded certain reciprocity. Its essence is that Polish and Czech officers be admitted to Russian missile launch pads or military bases in Kaliningrad, which can presumably be used for targeting the U.S. missile defense facilities in the Czech Republic and Poland," it said.
"It turns out that, in addition to the deployment of the U.S. missile defense bases (which will not have other targets but Russian ICBMs for a long time) right near our borders, we will also have to open our strategic facilities to the U.S.' allies, Poland and the Czech Republic. This lacks elementary logic," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"We view these demands exclusively as a sign of unwillingness to maintain professional dialogue aimed at attaining a practical result. It looks like neither our Czech nor our Polish partners even need this in the current situation," it said.
"We would like to reaffirm that, if our partners are prepared for dialogue at the negotiating table, we will not evade it and will continue to work with all parties concerned. This is exactly what Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reaffirmed in Warsaw several days ago," it said.