Report: Russian FM suggests missile defense attempt to encircle Russia

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Russia's foreign minister labeled US plans to build a global missile defense shield an example of "imperial thinking," and suggested in comments published Thursday that Washington was using the system to try to encircle Russia. Sergey Lavrov said in an interview published in leading Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza that elements of the missile defense system "exist or will be built in Alaska, California, northeast Asia." "If we look at a map, it's clear that all of it is concentrating around our borders," he was quoted as saying. "Most likely in the near future we are going to hear about hundreds, and maybe even thousands, of interceptors in various regions of the planet, including Europe." Washington wants to place 10 missile defense interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the neighboring Czech Republic as part of a global system that it says is necessary to protect against future attacks from Iran.