MOSCOW. March 18 (Interfax) - Washington's refusal to place final elements of its missile shield in Europe changes nothing in the Russian-U.S. strategic balance and has no principle importance for the military dialog between the two countries, Russian First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee and political expert, Vyacheslav Nikonov, said.
"In terms of the balance between Russia and the United States it changes little because even three stages of deploying the missile shield pose problems to the potential of the Russian containment in Europe. Plus the missile shield in Alaska is being reinforced, which is close to the Russian border, as you know. The general strengthening of the U.S. missile shield remains the same issue as it used to be," Nikonov told Interfax on Monday.
Nikonov said that Washington's official statements to justify its stance were illustrative. "There was a statement by a White House official that this was not related to the Russian position, this was related to the re-configuration of the U.S. strategic forces amid a fresh evaluation and a difficult financial situation in the U.S.," he said.
The Russian official said that the U.S. decision would not fundamentally influence the Moscow-Washington military dialog.
"The U.S. is developing their system as they want. They are ready to hold talks on offensive arms. Russia's stance is absolutely obvious - there is a connection between offensive and defensive strategic forces. So further reduction of offensive arms is impossible without an agreement on defense systems, on missile shields. So it has no real importance for the Moscow-Washington talks," Nikonov said.