Russia urges quick missile defense deal with US

MOSCOW — A deal with Washington to assuage Moscow’s concerns about U.S. missile defense plans in Europe is still possible, but time is running out, Russia’s foreign minister said Wednesday.

Sergey Lavrov reaffirmed that Moscow will take retaliatory action if moves by Washington to deploy missile shield components around Europe pose a threat to Russia.

The U.S. says its planned missile shield is aimed at deflecting potential missile threats from Iran, but Russia fears that the missile shield will eventually grow powerful enough to undermine Russia’s nuclear deterrent.

“Like any responsible state, we proceed not from declarations, but from concrete action when it comes to security issues,” Lavrov said. “Our response will strictly correspond to the potential of the European component of the U.S. missile defense as it develops.”

Moscow agreed in 2010 to consider NATO’s proposal to cooperate on the U.S.-led missile shield, but the talks have run into a deadlock over how the system should be operated. Russia has insisted that it should be run jointly, which NATO has rejected.

In a televised address to the nation in November, President Dmitry Medvedev threatened to deploy missiles to the Kaliningrad region, bordering Poland and Lithuania, and to other areas of Russia to be aimed at U.S. missile defense sites, if the U.S. and NATO fail to reach a deal allaying Russian worries. He urged the U.S. to provide firm and specific guarantees that its future missile defense potential will not be directed against Russia.

Lavrov said Wednesday that Russia doesn’t want confrontation with the U.S. and doesn’t think that Washington is making a specific effort to erode Russia’s nuclear deterrent.

But he added that the growing power of the U.S. missile shield could eventually make it capable of engaging Russia’s nuclear forces. “I hope that it’s not their goal, but its development undermines the strategic parity,” he said.

“We still have time to solve the acute problems, but it’s not unlimited,” Lavrov said, adding that Russia hopes that differences over missile defense wouldn’t throw Moscow and Washington back to a Cold War-style pattern of confrontation. “We must be heard and there must be a response to our legitimate concerns.”

Washington’s missile defense plans have been a key irritant in U.S.-Russian relations since President Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” plans that spooked the Kremlin in the 1980s.

The current toughening of Moscow’s rhetoric has posed a challenge to President Barack Obama’s policy of “resetting” relations with the Kremlin, which suffered badly under George W. Bush’s administration.

Russian ‘Pirate Party’ Joins Anti-Piracy Protest

Russia’s tiny but vocal Pirate Party joined on Wednesday in the global campaign against anti-piracy bills in the U.S. Congress that it says will jeopardize Russia’s emerging internet-dependent democracy and infringe on internet freedom.

“If these bills are adopted, U.S. judges would get the legal right to block the Russian social network Vkontakte as internet pirate №1, as well as Twitter and Facebook,” Pirate Party member Sergei Kolennik, 26, said.

A dozen party members attempted to stage a rally near the U.S. embassy in Moscow but were prevented by police, who detained two. However, the activists managed to pass a petition to U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul through the embassy’s post office.

“We ask you not to remain indifferent but to convey to the U.S. public and government how important it is for the democratic future of Russia to save the freedom of internet,” the petition said.

It also cited the case of the Lopukhovs, who in 2007 set up the torrent tracker interfilm.ru to share movies and music. The couple is now facing a six-year prison term and the Russian Anti-Piracy Society (RAPO) has estimated the damage caused by their actions to film companies at $1 billion.

Hundreds of web resources all over the world, including English-language Wikipedia, blog-hosting site WordPress, social-media news site Reddit and the web page of the Pirate Party of Russia went dark on Wednesday in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) which are currently under discussion in the U.S. Congress.

The U.S. bills are intended to crack down on online movie and music piracy by blocking access to web resources thought to contain unauthorized copyright material and have already stirred serious discontent from web giants and internet users.

The music and film industries have backed the controversial bills, but Google, Facebook and Twitter have said the proposed measures represent a serious threat to innovations in the web industry.

A prominent Russian intellectual property lawyer Svetlana Kokina said that even if SOPA and PIPA are adopted, this will not strongly impede internet piracy.

“In my view, it’s impossible to tackle internet piracy; several attempts have already been made and they failed,” she said, adding that governments should rather come up with a legal framework to regulate internet piracy, as has been done with prostitution in several countries.