MOSCOW. May 20 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia fears that after the deployment of parts of the U.S. national missile defense (NMD) system in Poland and Romania, its counter-missiles will appear in other Eastern European countries, Col. Gen. Valery Gerasimov, deputy chief of the Russian Army General Staff, said.
"Russia has serious concerns over the U.S. plans to deploy elements of its NMD near the Russian borders. The concerns stem from the fear that after Poland and Romania, limited NMD elements will appear in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and a number of other NATO countries," Gerasimov told a conference attended by foreign military attaches in Moscow on Friday.
"Our estimate is that the missile defense system planned by the U.S. could pose future risks for Russian strategic nuclear forces, which is a threat to Russia's national security. In this situation, it becomes even more important to obtain U.S. legal guarantees that the system it is deploying in Europe is not aimed against Russian nuclear forces," he said.
It is necessary to speed up efforts to resolve this issue and to start agreeing upon a concept of the European missile defense system. Joint development of the architecture will allow the removal of Russia's concerns in this matter, Gerasimov said.
Otherwise, Russia will have to make a decision on deploying new attack systems. "However, this is not our choice. We are prepared for a constructive dialog with our partners," he said.