RUSSIA'S DEFENCE MINISTRY DENIES CLAIMS THAT MOSCOW AGREED TO NATO'S EXPANSION








MOSCOW, March 12, 2001. /RIA Novosti correspondent/. 


	Russia's Defence Ministry has denied claims by US and NATO officials that Moscow agreed to the North Atlantic alliance's expansion and recognised the existence of missile threats in Europe, a RIA Novosti correspondent reports.


	Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, head of the Russian Defence Ministry's international military cooperation department, told journalists on Monday that Russia "considered and continues to view NATO's eastward expansion as a threat to its security". This is "stated unambiguously in the Russian Federation's new military doctrine and in Russian proposals on a non-strategic European missile defence system". 


	"All that is said on this matter in Washington and in NATO's European capitals is, to put it mildly, not true to fact," Ivashov noted. "Russia's position concerning the 1972 ABM Treaty is to preserve and for all signatories to observe all provisions of this document and for them to fulfil their commitments" Of major importance in the Russian proposals, Ivashov said, is the first stage of building up this system - "assessment of the character and scale of missile weapons deployment and possible threats of their use against European states". 


	At this stage the Russian side proposes defining possible measures to neutralise missile threats, if such appear, above all by political, diplomatic and other non-military means. And only if non-military means fail to neutralise missile threats from some or other states, only then will it be necessary to embark on the second stage of the Russian proposals - modelling ways and content of the future system of a non-strategic European missile defence system.


	Ivashov pointed out that Russia is ready to join other states, and not only European ones, in implementing the second and subsequent stages of forming a European missile defence system if the need arises. "Russia has every means of combating non-strategic ballistic missiles and we are prepared to combine these means with those of other countries to neutralise threats that may arise for Europe in the 21st century," the general said.


	He stressed that Russia makes its proposals on missile issues not only to NATO countries, but also to all European states, excluding any dividing lines. "Today, however, we do not feel any missile threat to the European states," Ivashov concluded.