On January 12 the Polish parliament took the next step and approved the deployment of 100 U.S. troops, the first foreign forces to be based on its soil since the end of the Warsaw Pact almost twenty years ago, to staff the missile battery near Russia's border.
Regarding the addition of Bulgaria to the expanding range of American missile shield sites - not the last as will be seen below - Konstantin Sivkov, First Vice President of the Russian Academy for Geopolitical Problems, said that the move "directly threatens Russia." A news account of his comments added "that after Bulgaria, the next country to make a similar announcement may be Georgia, which has already expressed similar desires." [11]
He also anticipated the statement of the former top Russian military commander cited above in asserting "the argument that the US missile defense in Europe will be directed against missiles from Iran and North Korea is ridiculous as neither of the two states has the capacity to carry out such strikes."
In his owns words, Sivkov warned: "The US missile defense in Europe is being created in order to level down Russian operational and tactical missile weapons. The USA has started creating a military infrastructure for exerting military pressure on Russia." [12]
Another geopolitical analyst, Maxim Minaev of the Russian Center for Political Affairs, said of the new and continent-wide European missile shield system planned by the U.S. and NATO that "In its scope it envisages a much stronger structure than the one that was supposed to be in located in the Czech Republic and Poland," [13] one which logically will include Georgia and Azerbaijan on Russia's southern border.
Poland became a full NATO member in 1999 and Bulgaria and Romania five years later. On the day U.S. ambassador Warlick first revealed plans to extend interceptor missile plans to Bulgaria, Prime Minister Boiko Borissov hastened to add "My opinion is that we have to show solidarity. When you are a member of NATO, you have to work towards the collective security." [14]
To indicate the extent to which U.S. missile shield provocations in Eastern Europe are linked with NATO's drive east into former Soviet space, fraught as that strategy is with heating up so-called frozen conflicts and the very real threat of hot wars, this year's developments in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria immediately gave rise to dangerous military prospects east of the Black Sea.
The latest news from Romania was coupled with the announcement that "the Czech Republic is in discussions with the Obama administration to host a command center for the United States' altered missile-defense plan," [15] and on February 18 the Romanian government began bilateral discussions with neighboring Moldova "on U.S. missile defense plans in Europe...." [16]
The former Soviet republic of Moldova has been coveted by Romania since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the current, Western-supported post-"Twitter Revolution" government is more than willing to oblige its patrons in Bucharest and Washington.
Recently Vladimir Voronin, president of Moldova until last September 11th, spoke of the Romanian president's disclosure that he would allow the stationing of U.S. missiles in his country, and drawing a parallel with Romania's World War II fascist dictator, said "The steps taken by Basescu are similar to the agreements to form an anti-Soviet coalition reached by Antonescu and Hitler."
Voronin added, "Moldovan society is against basing U.S. anti-missile defense systems in Romania. Strained Moldovan-Romanian relations will become worse. We do not accuse Romania for this decision as we are aware of its unionist policy. [Absorbing Moldova into Romania.] Romania cannot accept that Moldova exists as an independent state." [17]
"Though the Americans said the rockets are designed to prevent dangers from Iran, the essence is different. These events remind one of Europe's return to the Cold War of the last century." [18]
On February 11 Moldovan political analyst Bogdan Tsirdia warned that the U.S. "is very consistently moving NATO infrastructure in Russia's direction," specifically mentioning American bases in Romania and Kyrgyzstan, and added "the US wants to create another base in Georgia."
He added in relation to the Black Sea in particular that "in the near future the US will have a conventional arms advantage over Moscow in the region....[T]he United States is turning the Black Sea into an American lake to control transit in the region." [19]
On February 15 Transdniester, formerly part of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic but independent since 1990 and a war with Moldova two years later - and which fears that Romanian incorporation of Moldova would be a prelude to armed attacks to subjugate it - offered to host a Russian missile defense system to counter the American one in Romania.
Transdniester's president, Igor Smirnov, said "we could deploy what Russia needs" as the stationing of U.S. interceptor missiles "will not be a stabilizing factor." [20]
