Russian official sour about location of US bases in Bulgaria

Bulgarian News Network ^ | 16 December 2003

[stiga bey]

Russian official sour about location of US bases in Bulgaria

SOFIA (bnn)? The Chairman of Russia's parliament upper house said Wednesday his country "was not delighted" by prospects for the United States to locate military bases in Bulgaria. "We believe that our partners in the anti-terrorist coalition, the United States and Britain, will inform us about their plans," Federation Council Speaker Sergey Mironov said after talks with Bulgarian Parliament Chairman Ognyan Gerdzhikov. Mironov expressed hope that possible U.S. military posture in Bulgaria would be tailored to counter terrorist threats and "would not get out of proportion." The United States has already started talks with Bulgaria about possible stationing military bases on its territory. The formerly communist country, which is to join NATO next year, once was the staunchest Soviet ally. The Soviets however have never had military bases in Bulgaria.

[CWOJackson]

"We believe that our partners in the anti-terrorist coalition, the United States and Britain, will inform us about their plans..."

They're starting to understand...we will "inform" not ask permission.

[Beck_isright]

Sucks to be on the losing side. We need those bases so we can relocate our forces out the other loser, Germany.

[SolutionsOnly]

Russian discontnet is understandable. We weren't too happy about the prospect of a Russian presence in Cuba either.

Russian pride is still wounded over the collapse of the USSR. The Cold war mentality is dying a slow death in some quarters, but the realists in Russia realize that we would never attack Russia - nobody in their right mind would want to assume that economic and social mess!

I'm a big fan of disengaging with Germany. It makes sense to relocate our German bases friendlier (and less expensive) territiory in Poland and Bulgaria.