On June 7, during the G8 summit in Germany, Russian President Vladimir Putin invited the United States to share the early warning radar in Gabala, Azerbaijan, if it abandons its plans to deploy elements of its anti-ballistic missile system in Europe.
Although President George W. Bush said Putin's proposal was logical, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted that Washington would not abandon its ABM plans for Europe.
Subsequent events exposed the two countries' true intentions.
Some state officials and experts, including some in Russia, do not view Iranian missiles as a threat - but they may be wrong.
This summer, Iran and North Korea signed an agreement under which Iran will receive several dozen Taep'o-dong 2 missiles, with an effective range of up to 4,000 km (2,486 miles), by the end of the year.
Iran currently has no missiles that can reach Europe, but the North Korean missiles could easily fly from Iran to Germany, France, Britain and other countries in Europe. No wonder these countries (with the exception of Austria) support United States' ABM plans.
There are also reasons to assume that North Korea will supply Iran with ballistic missiles with a range of 11,000 km (6,837 miles), which it is currently developing, by 2013. Armed with these missiles, the unstable Iranian regime would be able to launch a missile attack against the United States. Only the ABM systems Washington plans to deploy in Poland and the Czech Republic by 2013 would be able to stop the attack.
The Iranian president is assuring the world of his country's peaceful intentions only in order to buy time to create nuclear weapons.
The United States and Russia are aware of the Iranian threat. Of the four contemporary evils - nuclear blackmail, international terrorism, ethnic separatism and religious extremism - Washington and Moscow especially fear the threat of local nuclear wars and international terrorism. This is why they need ABM systems, and it is from this perspective that we should consider both the events of the past two years and those to come in the future.
The Kremlin's asymmetrical response to the deployment of the American ABM system in Europe includes the creation of the GLONASS system and the construction of the new Voronezh-type radars.
Russia is establishing a global positioning system in orbit, and not only for peaceful purposes. Military satellites can create continuous navigation space, which allows establishing the precise coordinates of any object on the ground, on the sea or in the air. Precision weapons cannot be used without satellite navigation systems.
The Russian GLONASS system comprises 24 satellites, and should be in place by the end of 2009. As of now, Russia has 18 satellites in orbit, which is insufficient to cover the whole planet.
A recent statement by a Russian official about Moscow's intention to stop using the Gabala radar before 2012 has created a sensation.
Under a 2002 arrangement between Baku and Moscow, Russia pays Azerbaijan $7 million a year for the use of Gabala. The agreement ends in 2012, but in 2006 Baku asked to double the fee to $14 million. Recently First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov publicly pronounced the Gabala radar outdated and promised that Russia would replace it with a much smaller and cheaper solution in 2007.
Moscow may stop using the Gabala radar, but this is not the point. The Gabala radar is an early warning system, and not the X-range radar used to guide the Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) missiles, which the United States plans to deploy in the Czech Republic as an element of missile defense.
One huge drawback of the Gabala radar is that it is located too close to possible launch sites in Iran and other unstable countries in the region.
Religious extremists are openly fighting for power in Islamabad, and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf no longer controls his country. Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and I shudder to think who would take them over when Musharraf leaves.
The Gabala radar was built to track missiles' takeoff and the powered flight phase. But it does not "see" the interim phase, as it looks out to the south, not the north. The American GBI missiles are designed to intercept exoatmospheric targets.
The Kremlin, which is aware of this, will be able to stop using the Gabala radar when it builds a Voronezh radar near Armavir in the Krasnodar Territory (southern Russia).
The Voronezh radars could serve as part of a missile and air defense system, keeping an eye on a vast area extending from the North Pole to North Africa. The first radar of this type was put on combat duty in the village of Lekhtusi in the Leningrad Region in December 2006. It is a new-generation radar superior to its foreign analogues. It is a modular "high readiness" facility, which does not require extensive preparation of the deployment site.
The Voronezh radar should replace the old Dnepr and Daryal systems. Apart from the Armavir site, three more Voronezh radars will be built in Russia's eastern and northern regions. Each radar unit costs about 2 billion rubles (almost $78 million) - ten times cheaper than the Daryal-type Gabala radar.
The United States is present in Azerbaijan, even though it is not using the Gabala radar. Several years ago, it deployed its TRML-3D mobile surveillance and target acquisition radars, which can be integrated efficiently into air defense command and control systems, near the towns of Khyzy and Astara. They are monitoring an area of 300 km (186 miles) across the border with Iran.
I believe that the forthcoming tripartite talks in Baku should discuss not only the joint use of Gabala, but also possible measures to counter the Iranian nuclear threat and the dangerous plans of international terrorists and religious extremists.
Rauf Radzhabov is a military expert from Azerbaijan and editor-in-chief of the 3rd View information and analysis agency.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
