"Russian Space Forces and Foreign Ministry are discussing the possibility of installing remotely controlled missile shield monitoring stations into diplomatic missions (embassies and consulates) abroad," said Space Forces commander Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin in the Russian magazine Novosti Kosmonavtiki (Space Industry News) as reported by Mosnews on Monday,March 19, 2007.

Further explanations of the monitoring devices are that they are very small, they fit into half of a normal room and they don't require any maintenance. Listening devices will be able to pick up on the missile taking off and the direction it is going. This will give mother Russia ample warning to prepare and retaliate. The radar devices will be remotely controlled in Krasnokamensk, a town near the Chinese border.

Russia also plans to build two radar stations in the south, near the city of Armavir to replace the ones in Mukachevo and Sevastopol in the Ukraine.

But wait a minute, it is against the international rules of diplomacy to put military purpose devices into diplomatic missions. This is why on the following day there was another missive delivered to the media.

"Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) radars will not be deployed on the premises of Russian embassies abroad," according to the Russian Space Forces Command.

"No BMEWS radars have ever been deployed, nor may be deployed (at Russian embassies abroad), in accordance with international law," the "command" said in a news release.

Why was Colonel-General Popovkin not mentioned in this last pair of quotes? Command? Oops.

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