The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Prague

Experts say Russia's threat of a military response if the U.S. and Czech Republic ratify a missile defense system is mostly bluster. But for Czechs, the timing couldn't be more jarring.

Next month, this ex-communist country will mark the 40th anniversary of the Prague Spring challenge to Soviet domination - bold pro-democracy reforms that the Kremlin swiftly and brutally crushed. Bozena Haasova, an 81-year-old Prague retiree, is among many who vividly recall Aug. 20, 1968, the day the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations sent in tanks and troops to quell the rebellion.

"We'll never forget," she said. "We're happy that we finally got rid of them, and now they dare to threaten us again?"

Russia's warning came late Tuesday, after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg signed.

an initial agreement to deploy a radar system in the country as part of a missile shield that Washington says is intended to deal with the threat from Iran.

If the agreement is ratified, "we will be forced to react not with diplomatic, but with military-technical methods," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It did not elaborate on what would constitute a military response.

In February, then-President Vladimir Putin said Russia could aim missiles toward prospective missile defense sites and deploy missiles in the Baltic Sea region of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland, if the missile defense plan went forward.

Poland is still negotiating with the U.S. on hosting the 10 interceptor rockets that would be used to shoot down any incoming missiles.

"I think there's a lot more bark than bite to this threat," said Andrew C. Kuchins, director of the Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

"The targeting of missiles could be done. The launching of missiles is pretty impossible to imagine," he said.

Although the Czech government has agreed to offer the use of its territory, polls show a majority of Czechs oppose the plan, saying it would needlessly provoke Russia and expose the nation to reprisal attacks by terrorists. About 1,000 people staged a noisy protest in downtown Prague this week - one of many demonstrations against the proposal.