EU proposes to defer Russian missile crisis 15/11/08 09:15 CET

Attempts to defuse the Russian missile standoff by the EU presidency are putting it at odds with Poland and the Czech Republic. Brussels has asked Russia not to point missiles at Europe in return for a moratorium on the subject of a US defence shield until next year. But the Poles and the Czechs want confirmation of the existing deals.

Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish Foreign Minister, said: “We don’t expect, even for political reasons, any revolution. But of course the new president will take a new look and we know what the position of the president-elect is. He told me that he wants to make sure the thing works.”

There have been contradictory messages from the Obama camp on whether the new president will roll-back deals already signed with Poland and the Czech Republic to host US missiles and a radar station.

Before the ink was even dry on the bilateral treaties, Moscow was flexing its muscles. It’s threatening to put missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, bordering Poland and Lithuania.

But Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was said to have responded positively to the EU’s suggestion.