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Russian General Warns Poland Against Participation in U.S. Missile Defense Program
Russia’s top military official has warned Poland against joining the planned U.S. missile defense system, a Polish newspaper reported last week (see GSN, Nov. 28). “Missiles from other countries will never fly west over Polish soil. Thus, incorporating Central (and) Eastern (European) countries into the U.S. missile defense system means strengthening it in case of a clash with Moscow,” Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, chief of the Russian General Staff, told the Gazeta Wyborcza. Warsaw and Washington have over the past year formally discussed placing a U.S. missile defense installation in Poland. A top Polish lawmaker on Thursday dismissed claims from Russian officials that the program was intended to counter a threat from Moscow. “The Russians know perfectly well that the shield is aimed against countries that support terrorism or against countries that publicly threaten to use nuclear weapons,” said Pawel Zalewski, who leads the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of Poland’s parliament. While Baluyevsky said he had no reason to believe there would ever be a nuclear exchange between Russia and the West, he nonetheless warned Poland that missile defense cooperation with the United States would increase its vulnerability. “What can we do? Go ahead and build that shield. You have to think, though, what will fall on your heads afterwards,” he said (Gazeta Wyborcza/BBC Monitoring, Dec. 5)
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