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U.S. Stations Air Defense Installations to Contain Russia, Foreign Minister Said
Russia will strategically respond to deployment of the U.S. air defense facilities in Europe, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in the article “Containing Russia: Back to the Future?” released in Global Politics magazine and posted on the website of Foreign Ministry. Lavrov said the United States is stationing air defense installations along the perimeter of the RF borders and in line with the policy of containing Russia.
Initially, “Containing Russia: Back to the Future?” was to be released by The Foreign Affairs magazine. But Lavrov dropped the plans of that publication once the magazine put forward unacceptable editing requirements and corrected the article in the way close to censorship.
”The "containment of Russia" philosophy correlates well with unilateral plans to station a US missile defense base in Europe. It is hardly coincidental that this base, like a missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle, accurately fits into the picture of the US global missile defense system, deployed along the perimeter of Russian as well as Chinese borders. It goes without saying that this strategic challenge will be dealt with at the strategic level. Nobody can abolish the interrelation between defensive and offensive strategic weapons. Many in Europe are rightfully concerned over the fact that the stationing of elements of the US National Missile Defense System in Europe is fraught with negative global consequences for the disarmament processes,” the minister wrote.
”President Putin's offer to use the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan jointly with the United States and his recent proposals made in Kennebunkport with a view to creating regional monitoring and early warning system provide an opportunity to find a solution to the present situation with each party's dignity intact. As a starting point of a truly collective effort in this field we are ready to make an analysis of potential missile threats for the period of up to 2020 jointly with the US and other states concerned, primarily those in Europe. As President Putin noted, such cooperation could qualitatively transform Russian-American relations in the security field and propel them to a higher trust-based level. We would then discover the mutual trust that our countries so desperately lack at the moment and would embark on a truly global strategic alliance that would make its way towards a new multilateral collective security system which was envisioned by the UN founding fathers,” the minister pointed out.
www.kommersant.com
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