[M]OSCOW, Feb. 20 - President Vladimir V. Putin called on Europe and the NATO alliance today to
work with Russia on developing a common defense against missile attacks and
presented a set of proposals to the NATO secretary general, Lord Robertson,
who is visiting Moscow.
The proposals, calling for a mobile antimissile system that could be
deployed rapidly and aimed in the direction of a threatening state, are another step in a
diplomatic campaign to convince both Europe and the United States that the missile threat
from so-called rogue states can be met through cooperative and limited defensive efforts.
They would serve as an alternative to the national missile shield that the
United States proposes to erect over its territory. Such a system would
violate the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972.
Lord Robertson urged Russian officials to go to NATO headquarters in
Brussels at an early date to explore the proposals in detail. The 19-member
NATO alliance is dominated by the United States militarily.
"What is important now," he said after meeting Mr. Putin at the Kremlin,
"is that we have a Russian proposal to deal with the same kind of perceived
threat," from ballistic missiles that are under development in Iran, Iraq
and North Korea. "We look forward to examining this proposal in detail and
hearing a presentation from Russian experts on what has been put forward."
In opening remarks to Lord Robertson, Mr. Putin warned that despite NATO
assurances that it did not regard Russia as an adversary, the tendency to
portray Russia as a dark force in international relations was causing a
loss of confidence. When "confidence disappears," the president added, an
arms race will inevitably return.
"We are aware of statements made by certain representatives of the West we
can read who are trying to recreate the image of Russia as the evil empire,
even though it doesn't scare us anymore," Mr. Putin said, using the term
coined by President Ronald Reagan to describe the Soviet Union.
In an indication that Mr. Putin believes that the debate in Europe is
inclined against the American plan to pursue a strategy in a manner that
might incite a new era of nuclear- arms competition, Mr. Putin urged NATO
leaders to circulate Russia's proposals on the broadest basis to the
European public and the entire European Union.
At the same time, he and other top Russian officials again warned that
further expansion of NATO in Central Europe and into the Baltic region
threatened the security interests of Russia. Lord Robertson disagreed,
saying NATO would not allow anyone to veto the sovereign choices of nations
that seek common security arrangements.
Lord Robertson received the proposals today from Defense Minister Igor D.
Sergeyev. They call for a meeting of "skilled experts" to determine whether
Europe was threatened by missiles from "rogue" states and, if so, how
Russia and Europe might build a mobile defense that could be oriented
broadly in the direction of any threatening country.
The United States also has been discussing with European leaders how to
develop "theater" missile defenses Ñ designed for protection in limited
areas Ñ to protect American and allied forces in Europe and Asia.
An aide to Marshal Sergeyev, Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, said today, "This
is not a defense of the entire territory of Europe or part of it, but a
system designed for protecting missile-threatened directions."
The Russian proposal, some experts said, is for an elaboration of
antimissile systems first tested by the United States in the Persian Gulf
war. Russia is widely believed to be working on advanced missile
interceptors similar to the Patriot missiles used to shoot down Iraqi Scud
missiles fired at Israel and Saudi Arabia.
After meeting Marshal Sergeyev, Lord Robertson said, "We will be
discussing this matter at a briefing that the Russians will be giving in
Brussels at a very early date."
MOSCOW, Feb. 20 -- Russia presented today its alternative proposal for a
mobile anti-missile defense system for Europe, a bid to woo Western allies
already skeptical of U.S. plans to develop its own nuclear shield at the
risk of a new arms race.
The documents given to visiting NATO Secretary General George Robertson lay
out in more detail a concept Russian President Vladimir Putin first floated
last year, a limited theater-based system intended to address the threat of
unpredictable and hostile states often cited by Washington, according to
Russian officials.
The papers were not released publicly, but the plan appears to rely on
developing transportable units that could be moved to counter specific
threats during a crisis, rather than the more elaborate network of defenses
targeting intercontinental missiles envisioned by President Bush.
"We hope that as soon as possible your specialists will study our
proposals," Putin told Robertson at the Kremlin, "after which our
specialists -- military and civilian specialists -- will be ready to visit
Brussels to give the necessary explanations and, very important in my view,
to explain to the citizens of Europe what Russia proposes."
Robertson politely accepted the proposals and said they would be studied
seriously. But he left little hope that the Russian maneuver would succeed
in dividing the Western alliance despite doubts among NATO partners about
the wisdom of the planned U.S. anti-missile system.
"I made it clear that the NATO allies accept that the United States has made
its decision to have an effective missile defense," Robertson told reporters
after his meeting. "But what is important now is that we now have a Russian
proposal to deal with the same kind of perceived threat."
The missile defense issue has increasingly irritated relations between
Washington and Moscow since Bush took office promising to move forward with
development left stalled under his predecessor, Bill Clinton. Unable to
wield any influence with the new administration, Putin has tried to go
around it, rallying other critical countries such as China and waging an
aggressive campaign to sway Western European leaders.
Yet in foreign policy circles here, a consensus is emerging that in the end
these efforts will not amount to much. "Western European allies have all but
proclaimed their loyalty and stopped their criticism," Andrei Piontkovsky, a
political analyst, said in an interview.
"European nations, or at least the majority of them, do not want Russia to
have dangerous illusions that Europe will be able to hamper the U.S.
decision on [national missile defense] deployment and, hence, will share
Russia's views," foreign policy specialist Dmitri Polikanov wrote last week.
Likewise, Washington has not demonstrated that it sees any need to
compromise as Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Russian Foreign
Minister Igor Ivanov prepare for their first meeting on Saturday in Cairo.
U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) arrived here this week with what he called a
verbal message from Bush to Putin but no new proposals. Recent comments by
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and CIA Director George J. Tenet
describing Russia as a possible threat to the United States have left the
Kremlin chafing.
Noting that "we can read," Putin said it "bothers us" when Western officials
"try to restore the image of Russia as the evil empire which threatens
someone, although I think it doesn't scare anybody" anymore.
The always-touchy issue of NATO expansion added an element of tension to
today's talks. Still sore about the admission of former East European client
states, Putin reasserted his opposition to further extension of the alliance
to onetime territories of the Soviet Union, namely the Baltic republics.
"The expansion of the defense alliance up to our borders can be explained as
a [response to an alleged] threat from Russia," Putin said.
But Robertson played down the issue, noting that NATO might even be open to
Russia someday, a prospect that Putin's security adviser accepted as a
"theoretical" possibility.
The two sides tried to present today's visit as a mark of improvement in the
West's relations with Russia, as they reopened a NATO information center in
Moscow that had closed during the friction over the 1999 air war in Kosovo.