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MOSCOW (AP) Russia wants its military officers to be present at all times at planned U.S. missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic to make sure Russia is not a target, the Russian foreign minister said Tuesday.
Sergey Lavrov warned that if Poland and the Czech Republic resist, that could "devaluate" the latest U.S. proposals intended to assuage Russia's concerns about the missile shield. "We are mostly interested in two things: permanent presence of our officers and reliable means of technical control" to make sure that a battery of 10 U.S. missile interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic are not directed at Russia, Lavrov said. He said Polish and Czech officials had indicated they "don't even want to hear about a permanent Russian presence." Lavrov said the U.S. had suggested that Russian officers could be deployed at Russian Embassies in Poland and the Czech Republic and visit the sites occasionally on the basis of reciprocity. He said that would not be enough to ease Russia's concerns and scoffed at a push to visit Russian sites in response. "What kind of reciprocity they are talking about? We aren't planning to deploy any kind of missile defense system near the United States, Poland and the Czech Republic," Lavrov said. Russia's President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush failed to overcome differences over the system during their weekend meeting at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. Lavrov warned Tuesday that the U.S. failure to respond to Moscow's concerns on missile defense would prompt Russia to deploy weapons capable of piercing the missile shield in order to protect its security. Lavrov spoke Tuesday after the latest round of Russian-Polish missile defense consultations in Moscow failed to narrow differences. Russia's demands for its military inspectors to be permanently stationed on anti-missile shield sites in Poland and the Czech Republic are "too far-fetched", Poland's top missile defense negotiator Witold Waszczykowski told the PAP news agency Tuesday in Moscow following a round of talks with Russian diplomats. Waszczykowski said that "the installation could be accessible to visitors or inspectors, but we don't think there is any need for a permanent presence of Russian inspectors there." Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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