Bush visit may turn up heat over missile shield plan

George W. Bush's tense relationship with Moscow will be tested by his forthcoming visits to the Czech Republic and Poland, where a proposed US missile defence shield is seen mainly as a political defence against a potentially revanchist Russia.

The US president arrives in Prague on Monday and is due to make a short stop in Jurata, a resort town on Poland's Baltic coast, on Friday as part of a central European tour tied to his attendance at the G8 summit in Germany.

A key subject in both countries will be the US proposal to expand its missile defence shield to cover Europe, which would entail the construction of a radar base in the Czech Republic and locating 10 missile interceptors in Poland.

Mr Bush has been trying to sell the system as a response to the threat posed by states like Iran and North Korea. But in central Europe the focus is closer to home.

For central Europeans, the perceived threat from their former imperial master – grown rich on oil and gas exports and still seen as nostalgic for empire – is much more acute. A common view is that agreeing to the bases is a way of cementing central Europe more closely to western Europe and the US.

"A small country like the Czech Republic has to prove itself as a reliable partner and as a good ally," Karel Schwarzenberg, the Czech foreign minister, told the Financial Times.

"Russia has again become a rich country and they would like to return to the position of the Soviet Union, of being a superpower," says Mr Schwarzenberg. "They have the idea that all former parts of the Soviet Union are their sphere of interest and the states that belonged to Comecon or the Warsaw Pact are those where they should have a right of veto. It is very simple, they are staking claims."

The view is just as suspicious in Poland, a country that spent more than two centuries under Russian, and later Soviet, domination.

"In Russia today, the elite thinks in cold war terms," says Pawel Zalewski, the chairman of the parliamentary foreign relations committee and a member of the ruling Law and Justice party. "They are demanding that the west recognise their sphere of interest in the former Soviet Union and in former Soviet satellites."

Warsaw has also made clear that it wants the US to enhance Polish security if the missile defence base is built, fearing that the base itself could become a target.

"Poland should have instruments strengthening its air defences which would defend against an attack by medium-range missiles," says Mr Zalewski. "This is essential following threats from Russian generals who declare that Russian rockets are aimed at Poland."

Russia recently tested new strategic and tactical rockets, which it said could respectively evade and destroy the US anti-missile system.

During a recent visit to Poland, Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, was unenthusiastic about equipping Poland with local air defence and anti-missile systems.

But without a system to defend Polish airspace, there will be little support for the base, says Mr Zalewski.

"In the case that Polish security is not enhanced then it makes no sense for Poland to become engaged in this project," says Mr Zalewski.

Source:http:msnbc.msn.com