MOSCOW, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Russian military officers, diplomats and security specialists are studying President Dmitry Medvedev's statements at the Russia-NATO summit in Lisbon.
Medvedev told his audience that Russia's principles were equality, transparency, technological efficiency and responsibility for the accomplishment of this missile-defense objective, Rossiskaia Gazeta reported.
Medvedev added that two of Russia's primary concerns were that any proposed anti-ballistic missile system has to be universal to operate, cover the entire European continent on behalf of the interests of all Europe's inhabitants and must not upset the current nuclear parity.
Chief of the Russian General Staff Nikolai Makarov said that the Soviet Union signed a treaty, by which the U.S.S.R. and the United States undertook not to develop the missile-defense system. That gave the United States one closed system of missile defenses in North Dakota, with Russia's based in the Moscow region. The situation guaranteed an equal degree of protection against a nuclear strike.
The United States subsequently withdrew from the treaty, which had a negative effect on strategic stability in the world, which is why Russia insists that the new START III agreement enshrine the minimally necessary number of warheads and delivery systems.
