MOSCOW, July 8 (RIA Novosti) - Washington has frozen its missile defense plans for Europe and could subsequently review them, a senior Russian MP said on Wednesday, commenting on the U.S.-Russian presidential summit in Moscow.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who completed a three-day visit to Moscow on Wednesday, has shown less interest than President George Bush in opening a missile interceptor base in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic, which Moscow has fiercely opposed as a security threat.
Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the Russian lower house's international committee said "strong signals are coming" from both President Obama and his inner circle indicating that "the Americans have, as a minimum, halted and as a maximum are reviewing" their missile defense program.
He said that Obama understood Russia's logic, realizing that Moscow was not opposed to the deployment of anti-missile systems in principle but was against any "unilateral" decisions.
Obama has not yet announced a final decision on whether to move ahead with the deployment. The Bush administration said the missile defense shield elements were to counter possible strikes from "rogue" states, and not aimed against Russia.
During his visit to Moscow, Obama said the planned U.S. missile defenses in Europe would not provide protection from Russia's nuclear arsenal and should not be linked to strategic arms cuts, stating that it was intended to deal with a totally different threat.
The presidents signed a preliminary agreement on Monday to cut their countries' nuclear arsenals to 1,500-1,675 operational warheads within seven years after a new arms reduction treaty comes into force.
Obama pledged on Tuesday to consider Russia's concerns on missile defense, a senior Russian government official said.
