MOSCOW, May 06. /ITAR-TASS/. A missile defense system of the United States and NATO has an anti-Russian potential which will be growing if it is deployed in the future, chief of the main international military cooperation department of the Russian Defense Ministry Sergei Koshelev said on Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, we should state that our NATO partners actually refuse an expert dialogue on missile defense replacing it with populist political slogans,” he told Russian journalists over a forthcoming international security conference in Russia’s capital, Moscow, on May 23-24. “This situation and NATO leadership’s recent statements only build up our confidence that the US and NATO missile defense system has an anti-Russian potential which will be growing in the future,” Koshelev noted.

Asked whether the missile defense system will be discussed at the forum he noted that the Defense Ministry’s leadership did not set tight limits and restrictions on speeches of its participants. “If an expert wants to express his point of view on this problem, we will give this opportunity to him,” Koshelev pledged.

“Our assessments over European missile defense system did not change, therefore, it is senseless to repeat them at the conference,” he noted.