PRESS RELEASE
NATO Ignores Russian Warning,
Goes Ahead with BMDs
May 22, 2012 (EIRNS)—In the spirit of the London Economist's lunatic dismissal of Russian warnings, the NATO Summit in Chicago over the weekend declared that the European Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) to be in "interim operation," although it would be willing to continue discussions with the Russians.
The Economist's May 19 edition ran an article, entitled "Rethink the reset: NATO should not give in to Russian aggression," providing its marching orders to President Obama and other British puppets. "For 20 years NATO has wooed the Kremlin," they write, and all it has gotten in return is that "Russia's behavior to NATO is becoming nastier. The chief of the general staff, Nikolai Makarov, recently spoke openly about a first strike against future American missile-defense installations in Poland and Romania. Russia has conducted ostentatious military drills on its border with the Baltic states, NATO's most vulnerable members. Vladimir Putin, newly reinstalled in the Kremlin, has gone back to bashing the West."
NATO should not try to negotiate some deal around BMD, in exchange for Russia cooling their rhetoric, the Economist argues.
"Wooing Russia this way would be a mistake. America's missile-defense plans are aimed at Iran, not Russia.... Russian sabre-rattling is not militarily significant.... Russia is no military match for a united NATO...."
As NATO Director General Fogh Rasmussen put it at a May 21 press conference,
"of course that [activation—ed.] can't be blocked by Russia. It's a NATO decision. Having said that, we have invited Russia to co-operate on missile defence and this invitation still stands."
The only immediate response from Russian officials came from Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council. According to Ria Novosti, she said,
"In response to our strong demand to provide the Russian Federation legal guarantees that the system will not be aimed at Russia, we have received no guarantees."
Russia has not closed the issue and is in ongoing dialogue with NATO, she added.
Moscow has often heard assurances that the European BMDS is not aimed against it, she said, but that,
"we will not be guided by empty declarations but by the systems military-technical specifications.
"So far no one has provided us any serious arguments in favor of placing missile defense elements in Europe near the Russian borders."
Ria Novosti then recapitulates the Makarov warnings from May 3, where he said a pre-emptive strike on NATO BMD installations would have to be considered, if NATO went ahead on its current plans.
