US denies dropping plan to build anti-missile bases in Czech Republic and Poland

President Barack Obama’s administration has denied a report that the United States had given up on building anti-missile bases in the Czech Republic and Poland. State Department spokesperson PJ Crowley said the American government’s strategy on missile defence was under review and no conclusions had been reached on whether to place missiles in Poland and a linked radar base on Czech territory. On Thursday the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza quoted lobbyists and officials in Washington as saying such plans had been scrapped.

Russia responded angrily to the project, which it saw as an encroachment in the former Soviet bloc, and threatened to point nuclear warheads at the Czech Republic and Poland.

The Czech Parliament has agreed to allow the US to build a radar in central Bohemia. Opinion polls have consistently suggested that most Czechs are opposed to the idea.