MOSCOW. (Yekaterina Kuznetsova for RIA Novosti) - Consultations at NATO headquarters in Brussels have revealed that Europe is unanimous on the issue of hosting an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system.
Official sources noted that high-ranking NATO officials fully agreed that there was a potential missile threat to Europe. NATO bureaucrats at the NATO-Russia Council were also practically unanimous in a bid to convince Russia that the system did not pose a threat. Moscow, however, remains unconvinced.
NATO has been discussing the ABM system since the mid-nineties, but its Council approved a program on Active Layered Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (ALTBMD) only in 2005. Its goal is to protect allied military personnel against the threat of an enemy missile attack regardless of where they are located. According to the plan, the system should be built by 2010.
Russia's irritation with the American plan to deploy ABM components in the Czech Republic and Poland is only natural. On the one hand, the American and European public still views Russia as a potential enemy because of Moscow's support for the Iranian regime and the breakaway republics formed after the Soviet Union's demise, its suppression of the domestic opposition and the gas wars it wages against its neighbors. Russia's defense spending is growing at an average of 30% per year, a figure that supports the arguments of those who believe it is a source of real danger.
On the other hand, deploying an ABM system in eastern European countries that want to take revenge for "the crimes of communism" is more a provocation than a sound decision. Even before the ABM plans came to light, Poland's desire to make Russia repent for the "occupation" had turned into paranoia and generated a bill on censorship, charges against General Wojciech Jaruzelski and his associates, and the closure of the Russian part of a display in Auschwitz.
The mutual alienation has been further reinforced by the lack of progress in NATO-Russian cooperation on ALTBMD. Since 2002, when the relevant agreement was reached, the sides have only managed to score a linguistic success, compiling a full list of ABM terms in English, French and Russian.
The ABM scandal has again emphasized Russia's role in NATO's efforts to overcome its identity crisis. NATO has been trying to find a new raison d'etre; the old one was largely lost after the end of the Cold War. In the past decade, the U.S. government has done much to give NATO a new impetus, but in practice this noble goal was transformed into what seems to have been merely its knee-jerk expansion into eastern Europe. NATO is based on consensus decision-making, and the entry of new members has changed its path. A defender of peace in the Western Hemisphere has turned into a guarantor of democracy in the ex-Soviet sphere of influence. In eastern Europe, NATO membership has become an instrument of consolidating democratic gains and acquiring a legal stamp of approval from the powers that be. Of NATO's numerous campaigns in the past ten years - from peacekeeping missions in the Balkans to counterterrorist operations in Central Asia - it has scored the most points in Europe. As distinct from the old EU members, who are dreaming about an independent foreign policy, the new Europeans are displaying their readiness to become NATO's outposts in eastern Europe.
Does this pose a threat to Russia? Is the latter a potential enemy and target of an ABM system? Formally, NATO generals are right in asserting that it is not aimed against this country. Re-targeting interceptors against Russian missiles would be next to impossible. But the Czech-based radar will be able to scan hundreds of kilometers into Russian territory; the figure will increase tenfold in 2015 when the ABM system acquires the ability to intercept ICBMs. However, Russia no longer has the medium- and shorter-range missiles that this system is designed to track and destroy - these weapons were destroyed in compliance with the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Therefore, the ABM issue is sensitive for Russia only politically.
Russia's strong response to the ABM plan has compelled the Americans to soften their position and even offer to cooperate with Moscow on the project. But will there be a chance to cooperate? Judging by how many times the United States has broken its promises to Russia, this is a big question. The Russian proposals for the ABM system in Europe that President Vladimir Putin made to his European colleagues in 2002 were gradually and skillfully integrated into NATO's plan to deploy ABM defenses as a forward-based element of the American national ABM system. The spirit of the Moscow 2002 declaration, in which the United States and Russia declared their readiness to exchange information on ABM systems, has been irretrievably lost.
Obviously, the latest plans have diminished hopes for a European ABM system without U.S. involvement. But the implementation of the current American plan is a bigger menace to European unity than Russian security. The new EU members, prodded by the United States, are already undermining that unity, diminishing the prospect of a united foreign and defense policy. Making behind-the-scenes bilateral agreements with its closest allies is America's favorite foreign policy trick. But it seems that this time the Americans have outwitted themselves. Having broken its promise to Russia and damaged its image as a partner, the United States has turned itself into an instrument for eastern Europe to settle old scores with its big neighbor.
Yekaterina Kuznetsova works at the Center for the Study of Post-Industrial Society.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
