Putin’s Adviser Denies Russian Radar Monitoring of Czech Territory

Text of report by Czech privately-owned independent centre-left newspaper Pravo website, on 22 December

[Report by "brw": "Putin's Adviser: Our Radars Are Not Monitoring Czech Republic or Poland"]

Russian radars are only monitoring the countries that have weapons of mass destruction in their arsenals, Sergey Yastrzhembskiy, adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin and special envoy for issues concerning relations between Russia and the European Union, stated in Prague yesterday.

“Russian radars are monitoring neither the Czech Republic nor Poland. We are only monitoring the countries with weapons of mass destruction. It would be impractical, uneconomical, and politically stupid to do so in the case of others,” Yastrzhembskiy said during an event organized by the Association for International Issues. On the same day, Putin’s adviser held talks with Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg. “During the working breakfast, not a single logical reason why a US radar base should be built on Czech territory was heard,” stated Yastrzhembskiy, adding that the Czech Republic and Poland did not have to strive for the US shield at all. After the talks with Alexandr Vondra, deputy prime minister for EU affairs, the Russian official welcomed the fact that there were “no elements of Russo-phobia” in Czech positions. According to Vondra, the radar base planned in Brdy was not intended against Russia.

Originally published by Pravo website, Prague, in Czech 22 Dec 07.

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