AP News, October 26th, 2007
The Russian military will be banned from monitoring a Czech radar site proposed by Washington as part of its global missile defense system, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said Thursday.
Topolanek told the Czech parliament that nonmilitary observers could be allowed "but no soldiers will be invited."
The U.S. made a formal request in January to place the radar base near Prague as part of the defense shield that Washington says would protect against a potential threat from Iran. The U.S. also wants to place 10 interceptor missiles in neighboring Poland as part of the system. The two former Soviet satellites are now NATO members.
Russia strongly opposes the idea.
During a visit to Prague Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he had proposed to Russia that it might be allowed a presence inside proposed missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Gates said the proposal was to make it clear as possible to Moscow how the missile defense sites would operate. He said any Russian monitors or inspectors on Czech soil would have to be agreed first by the Czech government.
Topolanek, who was standing alongside Gates during Tuesday's news conference declined to comment then on the proposal. His government supports the missile defense plan.
The idea of a possible Russian military presence on Czech territory is very sensitive for this former communist country.
Armies of five Warsaw Pact countries led by the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968 to crush democratic reforms known as the Prague Spring. The last troops left the country in June 1991.
