US, NATO missile defence targeted against Russia - Russia defence ministry

MOSCOW, May 6 (Itar-Tass) - A missile defence system of the United States and NATO has an anti-Russian potential which will be growing if it is deployed in the future, chief of the main international military co-operation department of the Russian Defence Ministry Sergey Koshelev said on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, we should state that our NATO partners actually refuse an expert dialogue on missile defence replacing it with general political slogans,” he told Russian journalists over a forthcoming international security conference in Russia’s capital, Moscow, on May 23-24. “This situation and NATO leadership’s recent statements only build up our confidence that the U.S. and NATO missile defence system has an anti-Russian potential which will be growing in the future,” Koshelev noted. Asked whether the missile defence system will be discussed at the forum he noted that the Defence Ministry’s leadership did not set tight limits and restrictions on speeches of its participants. “If an expert wants to express his point of view on this problem we will give this opportunity to him,” Koshelev pledged. Meanwhile, “our assessments over European missile defence system did not change, therefore, it is senseless to repeat them at the conference,” he noted, adding that “The U.S. and NATO missile defence programme is being fulfilled having an anti-Russian thrust.” Learn more on itar-tass.com