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Making Them Sign for Their Missiles
// Russia Is Ready to Accept American Missile Defense
Russia got its concessions in exchange for the missile defense system
Russia is prepared to accept the placement of the U.S. missile defense system in Eastern Europe. After negotiations with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov acknowledged that American concessions could “minimize the concern” of Moscow. The change in the Kremlin's position is connected with the U.S. promise to make a written promise not to load the interceptor missiles in their shafts, not to make the radar in the Czech Republic capable of tracking targets on the territory of Russia and to allow Russians access to the missile defense facilities. In addition, the Americans are prepared not to push the integration of Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. “We discussed what here was in October. Today, the beginning of March, is a more optimistic month. Let bygones be bygones,” Lavrov said summing up the results of yesterday's 2 x 2 negotiations with himself, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Rice and Gates. It's been a long time since the American guests saw their Russian hosts so friendly.
Obviously, the decisive agreement was reached yesterday during negotiations between Rice, Gates and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Appearing before American journalists late Monday evening, Gates said he was surprised by the goodwill with which Putin and Russian President Elect Dmitry Medvedev met them. Gates said that they were able to sweep away the misunderstandings between Washington and Moscow at the meeting with Putin.
Yesterday, Lavrov repeated that “the plan to unfold a third missile deployment area in Europe creates a risk for us.” But after that admission, he acknowledged that, since the U.S. intentions are serious, Russia will not hinder them.
“Since the United States has firmly decided to create a third missile deployment area, we appreciate that, without reaching a substantial agreement with us, they acknowledged that we have just concerns about the realization of their project and made proposals that are meant to remove or alleviate them,” said the Russian foreign minister.
Russia's main demand was that the U.S. commit to writing all the proposals that were made by it last October. First, that the missile defense facilities would not begin to function (for example, that the interceptor missiles would not be loaded in their shafts) until the U.S. received confirmation that Iran has ballistic missiles capable of hitting Europe. Second, the radar tracking missile launches will not be capable of observing targets in Russia. Third, Russian specialists should have access to the facilities in the Czech Republic and Poland.
The Russian side stated that those proposals were made by the U.S. orally last year, but were not included in the papers sent from Washington at the conclusion of the negotiations. At yesterday's press conference, Rice even apologized for the occurrence, saying that it was probably unclear what was said what was put on paper. Sometimes things are lost in the transition from the conceptual to the detailed. Gates promised to have the proposals in written form by the evening. He said Putin liked the proposals as a whole, but Russian experts had to study them more closely.
“Since the U.S. is going to carry it [the missile defense system] out,” said Lavrov, “the proposals that we count on receiving on paper today seems important to us and useful for minimizing our concerns.”
In addition, Rice said that the presidents of the two countries can sign a document on the results of their cooperation over the years. She said they agreed that it was necessary to draw up a join document within a legal framework to reflect the elements of what the presidents of Russia and the U.S. agreed on. The American administration needs such a document to show domestically what successes it was able to achieve with Russia and to make many changes irreversible. It is principally important for Washington that there be a framework agreement indicating the placement of the missile defense system in Eastern Europe, since tow out of the three potential successors of Bush favor reconsidering the system.
Presidents Putin and Bush can confirm their agreement on the missile defense system and approve a final “joint” document at the beginning of April when they meet at the NATO summit in Bucharest. For the American administration, it is extremely important that the summit is a success. Therefore, Kommersant has learned, besides the compromises on the missile defense system, it is ready to make more compromises, in particular, not forcing through the action plan for the admission of Ukraine and Georgia to the alliance. In the White House, they say the admission of the former Soviet republics will remain a priority for the next U.S. president, therefore, Ukraine and Georgia may be invited to join at any summit. But Bush has more pressing problems at the moment.
Mikhail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 19, 2008
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