MOSCOW (AP) — Senior Russian officials on Thursday warned Washington against snubbing Moscow's proposal for cooperating on missiles defense, saying that the deployment of American missile defense sites in Europe would strengthen Russia's belief that it is the real target of the U.S. System.
Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the chief of general staff of the Russian armed forces, said with Iran posing no immediate missile threat, the aim of the planned U.S. Sites in Poland and the Czech Republic must clearly be against Russia's nuclear missiles arsenal.
If the United States rejects Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposal for a shared use of a Russia-rented early warning radar in Azerbaijan, that would clearly show that Washington's real intentions, he said.
"That is a litmus test," Baluyevsky told reporters. "The entire world will see the true aim of this system."
Baluyevsky described the U.S. Plans as part of efforts to weaken Russia's nuclear deterrent and referred to what he said were U.S. Cold War-era plans for a disarming nuclear first strike, using missile defenses, that would deprive Russia of the ability to retaliate.
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