NATO and Russia failed to resolve a rift over a European missile shield on Thursday but agreed to press on with negotiations aimed at reaching a cooperation deal. “On missile defence, we do not agree yet,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after talks between foreign ministers of the military alliance and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. “But we all agreed that it is important to keep on trying, to keep on talking, and to keep on listening to each other’s concerns,” he told a news conference. Seeking to assuage Russian concerns after Moscow threatened to deploy missiles near EU borders, Rasmussen reiterated that NATO allies “do not consider Russia an enemy”.
NATO renewed its invitation to cooperate with Russia on the defence systems “so that they can see with their own eyes that it’s not directed against Russia,” he added. Moscow wants NATO to provide a legally-binding document stating that the missile system is not pointed at Russia, but the transatlantic alliance says it has made enough statements to that effect. “We want to have clear guarantees that the missile defence capabilities will not be targeted against our strategic capability,” Lavrov told a news conference after the talks. Moscow also suggests that both sides operate a joint missile shield, but NATO insists on keeping two separate systems with the former Cold War foes sharing data.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused the United States of stirring up controversy over Russia’s polls and warned those protesting the result they would be punished if they broke the law.
After three days of protests against election results the opposition says were rigged, Putin said the authorities should enter into dialogue with the opposition. But he accused some of its leaders of acting selfishly.
“If somebody breaks the law then the security forces must implement the law with full legal means,” Putin said in his first public comments on the demonstrations. Russia’s opposition has vowed to stage a mass protest in Moscow at the weekend to contest the results of elections, despite the arrest of around 1,000 people in previous demonstrations. Putin said that “if people act in accordance with the law, they should be given the opportunity to express themselves, and we should not limit these civil rights.”
But he lashed out at US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who he said had criticised Sunday’s elections before even reading the reports of international monitors. The US criticism “had set the tone for some people inside the country and given a signal,” Putin said.
“They heard the signal and with the support of the US State Department started active work. By apparent coincidence, Putin’s comments came on the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Belovezh accords when the leaders Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine decided on December 8, 1991 that the USSR no longer existed as a state.
In the run-up to the election, Putin had already accused the West of funding Russian NGOs with the aim of questioning the validity of the elections. Putin also said there should be dialogue between the regime and the opposition.
Around 1,000 people have been arrested in three days of demonstrations protesting what they say was mass fraud in Sunday’s polls. Over 20,000 people have pledged on a Facebook page called “for honest elections” to attend the protest on Saturday afternoon on Revolution Square, just metres from the Kremlin walls.
