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| Russia Criticizes US Plan to Deploy Bases in East Europe |
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The deployment of a contingent of US Armed Forces in East Europe under NATO auspices would run against the spirit of the relations and understandings Moscow and Washington have had since the end of the Cold War, a Russia lawmaker said in Moscow on Saturday. "The action undertaken by the US would destabilize the situation in East Europe and would not promote truly joint efforts in fighting both terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," Andrei Kokoshin, chairman of the State Duma's CIS Affairs Committee, was qutoed by the Interfax news agency as saying, commenting on the US decision to deploy bases in Bulgaria and Romania. NATO's eastward expansion of the sort would trump the common interests of international security, Kokoshin said. "I am sure that the US actions will raise negative attitudes in the majority in Russian society and in many other countries," he said. The deployment of US military bases in Southeast Europe is unlikely to improve efficiency in international efforts to fight terrorism, Kokoshin said. "The intensification of these efforts should have been achieved in an absolutely different way, without deploying an additional contingent of US troops but on the basis of relevant agreements with all parties concerned, including Russia," Kokoshin said. "In conversations with the leaders of the Soviet Union and Russia, the Western countries, including the United States, France, and Germany, promised not to deploy any NATO contingents in East European countries. However, we see that these assurances have not been supported by practical deeds," he said. The State Duma regularly discusses various responses to such decisions by the United States, Kokoshin said. "In particular, (the parliamentarians) regularly raise the issue of withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty," he said. Besides, NATO will help rebuild an airbase in Amari in Estonia, the Estonian Defense Ministry press service said on Friday. NATO will invest about 500 million Estonian crowns (US$40 million) in the reconstruction, which is an element of the NATO Security Investment Program, it said. The base is located outside the capital city of Tallinn. It was earlier used as a strategic airfield by the Soviet Air Force when Estonia was part of the Soviet Union. (Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2006)
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