Russians Threaten Poland and Czech Republic Over Missile Defense

A top Russian general, Nikolai Solovstov, has stated that if Poland and the Czech Republic agree to host American missile defense systems in their countries, they could very well come under attack from Russian missiles, the Associated Press is reporting.

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, were meeting together in Warsaw at the time of the Russian announcement. Both countries were expressing their intent to build the anti-missile defense system with the United States.

General Solovstov stated that it would be very possible for Russian Strategic Missile Command to target these facilities as they are being built in order to stop them.

The new threat comes little over a week after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of a growing "unipolar world" with the United States as the sole center of power at a conference in Munich. Russia sees the building of these American missile defense systems as a threat to Russia. The pronouncement took the United States and the rest of the West by surprise.

Beyond threatening missile strikes against Poland and the Czech Republic, Solovstov also stated that Russia might repeal certain arms control treaties and begin making new missiles that are currently banned, including upgraded intermediate range missiles.

Europe already has an anti-missile system in place. However the system is limited and unable to counter the advanced strategic missiles which Russia has available. Russia believes that the new American anti-missile defense system could be able to counter their missiles.

The United States has maintained from the beginning of the negotiations on these missile defense systems that Russia is not the target, but Iran and the Middle East. For the United States these anti-missile defense systems are simply the next step in the War on Terror, providing protection from missile attacks from potential extremist groups or rogue governments operating in the Middle East.

Prime Ministers Topolanek and Kaczynski both share the American view that this new defense system is not targeting Russia. Kaczynski himself stated that the missile defense was not meant to target "any normal state."

An analyst at the Polish Institute of International Afairs in Warsaw, Slawomir Debski, can see only one reason why Russia would respond in such a way: it sees the United States, the Czech Republic and Poland as "enemy nations."

Many officials in the US are worried about Russia's ties to Iran, including weapons sales made to the nation. One analyst believes that to Russia, the missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic is American retaliation for Russian relations with Iran.

Many worry that this could spell the beginning of bad days for US-Russian relations. Putin has talked of a new "Cold War." Threats such as this could mean that Russia is working to make that a reality.

Information for this article came from the Associated Press