Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
May 14, 2007
Pg. 8
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice goes to Moscow today in an effort to ease President Vladimir Putin's concern that a planned European missile shield is part of a U.S. strategy to isolate and weaken Russia.
U.S. plans to base elements of a ballistic-missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic have alarmed Russian officials, who have rejected the American explanation that the system is intended to defeat missiles from a nuclear-armed Iran. If the missile system enables the Polish and Czech governments, which were once under Soviet sway and are now part of the NATO, "to become bolder in a dispute with Russia, that, of course, is of concern to Moscow," said Dimitri Simes, president of the Nixon Center, a foreign-policy think tank in Washington.
Putin sharpened his opposition to the U.S. shield last month by raising the possibility of withdrawing from two arms control agreements if his concerns aren't met. Russian officials denounce the missile system as a potential threat to their own country's nuclear deterrent.
May 14, 2007
Pg. 8
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice goes to Moscow today in an effort to ease President Vladimir Putin's concern that a planned European missile shield is part of a U.S. strategy to isolate and weaken Russia.
U.S. plans to base elements of a ballistic-missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic have alarmed Russian officials, who have rejected the American explanation that the system is intended to defeat missiles from a nuclear-armed Iran. If the missile system enables the Polish and Czech governments, which were once under Soviet sway and are now part of the NATO, "to become bolder in a dispute with Russia, that, of course, is of concern to Moscow," said Dimitri Simes, president of the Nixon Center, a foreign-policy think tank in Washington.
Putin sharpened his opposition to the U.S. shield last month by raising the possibility of withdrawing from two arms control agreements if his concerns aren't met. Russian officials denounce the missile system as a potential threat to their own country's nuclear deterrent.