Medvedev: Lack of anti-missile defense deal may reverse security situation
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If no agreement on the anti-missile defense (AMD) system is rached soon, the security situation in Europe might roll back to the 1980s, President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday.
"The year 2020 is ahead, when the new AMD system is to appear in Europe. Let's agree now that in 2020 we'll get a modern, livable European home. Otherwise, we'll get an Europe of the 1980s," Medvedev said in an appearance at an international lawyers convention in St.Petersburg.
On the same day, the Russian General Staff's high-ranking officers held a conference in Moscow to discuss AMD issues.
The head of the Main Operative Command of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Andrei Tretyak, said at the meeting that Russia was developing its anti-missile capabilities at a fast pace and is ready to use them as a basis for the common European ant-missile defense.
"The U.S. plans to modernize their AMD which will impose no serious threat for Russian strategic nuclear forces until 2015, but then the situation may change significantly," Tretyak said.
The head of Russia's General Staff, Army General Nikolai Makarov, also warned that deployment of the U.S. missile shield in Europe might result in a new arms race.
"Russia will have to undertake a number of measures to counter the (U.S.) systems. Nobody needs the new arms race, especially in time of the economic crisis," Makarov said.
Igor Morozov of the Russian Space Forces said Russia's anti-missile defense system goes ahead of the similar systems that are being developed in the third countries and has been on a par with those of the U.S. and Europe.
"The missile system which protects Moscow could be a base for building a reliable ant-missile shield for Europe," Morozov said.
Morozov said that in 2012 Russian Space Forces would put into service a second early-warning station in the Krasnodar region capable of detecting targets at a 6000-km range. He said the station could be integrated into the joint European AMD.
He also said that Russia has been developing a new system to protect the country from space-originated threats.
