US missile system 'will spy on Russia'

Russia’s foreign minister suggested on Friday that the true reason the United States wants to put an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe is not to defend Europe from Iranian missile attacks but to spy on Russia.

Sergey Lavrov made the comments in an interview on state-run television, just days after American technical experts visited the Russian-leased Gabala radar in the ex-Soviet state of Azerbaijan.

Russia has responded angrily to US proposals to put elements of a missile defence system in the Czech Republic and Poland. Moscow’s counterproposal is for Russia and the United States to use the Gabala radar.

But US officials have said the radar’s technology is outdated and emphasised that even if they were to use the Russian radar, it would not replace the US elements in the Czech Republic and Poland.

“When our American partners say that Gabala cannot be an alternative to a radar in the Czech Republic, I understand them, because the Gabala radar cannot see Russian territory from its western borders to the Urals – a radar in the Czech Republic can,” Lavrov said.