Russia's incoherent response to missile defense

AP/Washington Times:

Russia's top military officer yesterday accused the United States of seeking direct confrontation with Moscow and warned again that U.S. plans to deploy missile defenses in Europe would destabilize the continent.

Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky spoke at a joint press conference along with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak, who repeated that Russia would not increase troop levels on its western border even after suspending participation in a key arms treaty.

Among the issues that have most undermined Russian-U.S. relations in recent years is a U.S. plan to put elements of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic — former Warsaw Pact members that have joined NATO.

Russia has claimed the system will be used to spy on Russian missile and military forces; Washington says it will help defend Europe from a potential missile attack from Iran.

Gen. Baluyevsky said the U.S. missile defense plan would destabilize Europe and he repeated sharp warnings that Russia would respond in some fashion.

"We plan and, depending on the situation, will take appropriate and asymmetric measures aimed at preventing the deterioration of our defense capability," Gen. Baluyevsky was quoted as saying by Interfax. There was no explanation of what he meant by asymmetric.

Gen. Baluyevsky, the chief of Russia's general staff, said U.S. Defense Department policies continued to challenge Moscow openly.

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The incoherent irrational response to defensive weapons to counter a threat from Iran just make no sense. The US has no reason to threaten Russia, so it makes no sense for Russia to even feel threatened by a missile defense system that would be incapable of stopping a Russian attack in the first place. The Russians should at least come up with a rational explanation for their paranoia. Even if we had a system that could counter all of Russia's missiles, what would we do with it? The small forces we have in Europe and the small forces the Europeans have in Europe are of no threat to the Russians.