Approaching missile defense

As a result of the negotiations, Poland agreed to deploy elements of the American missile defense system on its territory, and the United States accepted the Polish conditions. The agreement has not yet been signed, since the Polish government must submit it for discussion to the Sejm. The preliminary agreement provides for an increase in military assistance that the United States will provide to Poland, as well as guarantees of military assistance to Poland in the event that it is attacked by a third country. According to this document, a base with missile defense interceptor missiles and a base with Patriot missiles will appear on Polish territory. Construction may begin as early as this year. By 2012, it is planned to station a permanent American garrison in Poland, and the construction of the American facility will be completed in 2014-2016. Russia's reaction from the mouths of persons having one or another relationship to foreign policy and defense was not slow to appear. Chairman of the Duma Committee on International Affairs Konstantin Kosachev said that it is such an agreement, and not the situation in South Ossetia, that will really complicate relations between the United States and Russia. In an interview with Interfax, he noted that “this agreement does not contribute to the interests of strategic stability in Europe and in the world as a whole, since there is still no evidence that the nuclear missile threat to the United States or Europe comes from Iran or other commonly referred to Americans as this country context." Thus, according to Kosachev’s logic, the purpose of placing missile defense elements in Poland and tracking radars in the Czech Republic “willingly or unwittingly” becomes Russia’s strategic nuclear potential. An anonymous Interfax source in the Russian Foreign Ministry spoke in the same spirit and more openly: “In fact, the project has nothing to do with the Iranian nuclear threat, but is directed against Russia.” He also noted how quickly the agreement was reached between the United States and Poland. True, in Washington they say that it has nothing to do with the conflict in Georgia. A member of the Federation Council Committee on Defense, former commander of the Northern Fleet, Vyacheslav Popov, said on Echo of Moscow that the American missile defense system threatens the security of Russia and Moscow will give an adequate response to the deployment of missile defense near its borders. Officially, the Russian Foreign Ministry did not make any statements on this matter, but for some reason Minister Sergei Lavrov suddenly canceled his visit to Poland, scheduled for September. True, the ministry said that the cancellation of the visit was not related to the preliminary agreement between Poland and the United States.