MOSCOW (Reuters) - Big companies with an eye on fat profits rather than potential foes are the force behind U.S. plans to develop a Star Wars-style missile defense system, a Russian general said in an interview published on Wednesday.
Major-General Vladimir Dvorkin, who heads Russia's strategic missile research institute, also told the military Krasnaya Zvezda that U.S. arguments why Washington should breach the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty simply did not wash.
Dvorkin reiterated Russia would respond if the United States deployed a missile defense system against what Washington sees as a threat from so-called rogue states. But he said Moscow believed diplomacy could still rescue the ABM treaty, which Russia considers a cornerstone of arms control.
"One can only assume the main reason is not threats but satisfying the interests of military-industrial sectors connected to ABM and of financial groups,'' the general said, developing a line of attack heard during a Cold War battle of words with Washington in the 1980s over a Star Wars plan.
"Since there has been a considerable blockage in implementing the Star Wars program, it is necessary to clear the blockage and secure profits,'' Dvorkin said.
He said the United States advanced three main arguments to justify its anti-missile scheme. One was the threat from so-called rogue states such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq. The second was the limited scope of the existing U.S. anti-missile system. Finally, Washington argues the 1972 treaty is outmoded.
"Third countries are nearer to us than to the United States and so any instability in those places could be a more serious threat to us,'' Dvorkin said, adding Russia considered it impossible for rogue states to "surprise'' the world with a new ballistic missile.
"Even if a satellite broadcasting songs glorifying some great leader or other is successfully launched it does not mean an intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead has been developed,'' the general said. He was referring to a North Korean launch last year.
He said the U.S. plan envisaged a twin system that could intercept several dozen defense-dodging missiles and that Washington could easily afford to expand the network.
"That makes the second argument completely unconvincing,'' Dvorkin said. He also denied the ABM treaty was outdated, saying the philosophy behind nuclear deterrence remained the same.
He said if the United States went ahead Russia would come with "asymmetrical'' responses such as placing treaty-busting multiple warheads on new Topol-M missiles. He also said Russia's economic crisis would not be eternal and Moscow would then build its own national missile defense if needed.
"Nonetheless I believe the reserves of political, diplomatic and other measures are far from exhausted,'' Dvorkin said.
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