Missile Sheild Pact Intrigues

Hmmmm... A meeting in Moscow has "softened" Russian opposition to a missile defence shield set up in the Czech Republic and Poland. The Russians seem to be "looking to broaden the international security agenda with the US".

Vladimir Putin appeared to pave the way for a breakthrough deal within weeks on the Pentagon's contentious missile shield plans yesterday when he responded positively to an offer from George Bush. With the White House and the Kremlin preparing Putin's swansong summit with Bush at a Nato meeting in two weeks in Romania, the outgoing Russian president appeared to soften his opposition to US plans for missile interceptors and a radar site in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, and the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, met Putin and his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, in Moscow yesterday ahead of the Nato summit in Bucharest. Putin is to attend in one of his last foreign acts as Russia's president.

The US and the Czechs are keen to wind up lengthy negotiations on the missile shield, but hope to strike a deal with Moscow, while the Poles remain unconvinced, looking for stronger American security guarantees and a new air defence system to protect them from Russian threats.

It was not clear what Bush offered the Russians in a letter to Putin that softened Moscow's opposition. But US officials said there was nothing new. The Pentagon insists the shield's facilities are aimed at Iran, while Moscow maintains they could be directed at Russia's nuclear arsenal.

Washington has previously sought to allay Moscow's concerns by offering Russia inspections of the sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, suggesting Russia's participation in the shield, and delaying the new system's operability pending Iranian missile advances.

But according to Nato and European officials, the Russians are looking to broaden the international security agenda with the US beyond the missile shield by reviving an arms control dialogue and offering the west logistical and transport help for the Nato effort in Afghanistan. All of this is likely to be broached at the Nato summit.

Despite the apparent race to conclude a missile shield pact, Poland remains the trickiest partner. The Poles are worried about Russia, not Iran, and are pressing Washington for beefed-up defences, which, in turn, will increase Russian opposition.

Now, why would the Poles be worried more about the Russians? Could it have something to do with, oh, the dismemberment of Poland spearheaded by Catherine the Great of Russia in 1795 after the first ever constitution in Europe giving "the people" greater rights than they had ever had before, thus threatening all those states surrounding Poland that didn't want "the people" having rights? Or maybe the 123 years of time from that point when Poland ceased to exist as a state ? Or how about the 1920 Polish/Soviet war soon after the rebirth of the Polish state? Or WW2 where Russia entered Poland in the guise of "helping", but instead used the Nazi invasion from the other side as a pretext for grabbing half of Poland? Or something to do with the Soviet army waiting on the outskirts of Warsaw near the end of WW2, watching while Warsaw was annihilated by Nazi troops in the Warsaw Uprising (the entire city had to be rebuilt) instead of helping as they promised to do. Or how about the consequent takeover of Poland, facilitated by the allies (Britain and the US at Teheran and Yalta) that lasted right up until 1989? Or the continual rejections for requests to this day for more information into the Katyn and associated massacres of 1940 of up to 25,700 Polish officers and leaders.... It's a long list. A long list with many causes for worry.

Related Link: Putin appears to soften opposition to American missile shield