Moscow vehemently opposes Washington's plans to place a missile interceptor base in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic, and considers them a threat to Russia's national security.
Earlier this week, a team of U.S. military experts visited a radar facility rented by Russia in Azerbaijan, which Moscow has offered as an alternative to the planned U.S. missile shield in Central Europe. The specialists held informal technical consultations with their Russian counterparts.
"When our American partners say that Gabala cannot be an alternative to a radar in the Czech Republic, I understand them, because the Gabala radar cannot see Russian territory from its western borders to the Urals, while a radar in the Czech Republic can," Lavrov said in an interview on Rossia TV channel.
Following the U.S. delegation's visit to Azerbaijan, deputy director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), Brigadier General Patrick O'Reilly, said the U.S. was studying the radar's parameters, and would analyze them later.
However, MDA director, Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering III, said on Tuesday that the Gabala radar may only be used as an integral part of U.S. missile defenses in Europe, and could not serve as an alternative to the European shield.
The Russian foreign minister reiterated that Russia continued to regard the placement of a U.S. missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic as a threat to its national security and Moscow had been preparing an adequate response to Washington's move.
"We see a threat and we are preparing a response to it," he said.
