June 7, 2007 :: AFP :: Analysis
A news report by the AFP cites two international security analysts defending the skeptical Russian response to American proposals for missile defenses in Eastern Europe. Retired Russian General Gennady Evstafiev said that the plan could well be viewed as the first step toward a future U.S. defense posture which could be threatening to Russia. "The Americans say `well, it's just these 10 little rockets.' But this is not the issue—of course these things are not a threat to us," Evstafiev said. "The real issue is that no one knows what comes next. What do the Americans plan to do after that?" Evstafiev also claims that the planned U.S. radar facility in the Czech Republic would be powerful enough to "survey Russian territory as far east as the Urals," including missile tests on Russian territory. Pavel Podvig, an international security expert at Stanford University concludes that "Missile defense locks us in confrontational mentality, imposing Cold War schemes on the US-Russian relationship...This is what Rice should have termed 'purely ludicrous.'"
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