In These New Times

8th July,

2008

PRAGUE, July 8 (Itar-Tass) — About 1,500 citizens are protesting against the Czech-U.S. agreement on the deployment of a missile defense radar station on the Czech territory in downtown Prague.

The civil group “No to Military Bases” organized the action, which gained support of parliament opposition factions. Parliament deputies and opposition members are taking part in the rally.

Speakers at the rally demanded that the Czech authorities must respect the will of the majority of citizens. According to the latest polls, three-fourth of Czech residents object to the construction of the radar station. The protesters said they would march down to the residence of the U.S. ambassador and present him with a letter of protest.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg signed the deal earlier in the day. The Czech parliament will start the ratification process this fall.

Russia opposes the deployment of U.S. missile defense elements in Central Europe and invariably regards these plans as a threat to Russian security, head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s International Legal Department Lt. Gen. Yevgeny Buzhinsky said in Prague.

Buzhinsky leads a Russian delegation to the international ABM conference in the Czech capital city. He has met with parliament deputies representing the Czech Social Democratic Party and party experts in international affairs and security.

The Social Democrats make up the second largest faction in the Czech parliament. They plan to oppose the ratification of the Czech-U.S. deal on the deployment of a U.S. missile defense radar station on the Czech territory.

Buzhinsky said that arguments of the ABM supporters did not hold water. Iran does not possess weaponry, which is presumably the target of the U.S. missile defense. There are no threats coming from North Korea either, he said.

The missile defense agreement between the United States and the Czech Republic will not help Russia-U.S. relations, Chairman of the Federation Council International Affairs Committee Mikhail Margelov told Itar-Tass.

“We regret that, because the world has plenty of problems requiring profound and sincere cooperation of the United States and Russia,” he said.

The U.S. administration “is hurrying to show its efficiency in the time left before the presidential elections,” Margelov said. Thus, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to Prague to sign the agreement “against the backdrop of protests of Czech citizens and the Medvedev-Bush meeting on the G-8 summit sidelines. The Russian leader once again confirmed the Russian negative attitude to the U.S. missile defense plans at the meeting,” he said.

“There are no less than two reasons for signing the treaty right now: the more efficient the Republican administration is, the more chances of the Republican candidate will have in the presidential elections; also, Washington wants to prove that it is the sole guarantor of security in Europe,” Margelov noted.

Poland, which has refused to deploy missile defense elements on its territory, is another target of the U.S. message, he remarked.