Russia received written U.S. proposals on Wednesday which Washington hopes will allay Moscow's concerns over plans to deploy elements of a missile shield in Europe, Russian news agencies reported. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates promised Russian counterparts at talks in Moscow on Tuesday to offer a set of confidence-building measures aimed at easing Russia's opposition to the project, Reuters reported. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who reiterated Russia's criticism of the Missile Shield plan, described the U.S. offer on Tuesday as "pretty serious and interesting" and said Moscow was waiting for it to be presented in writing by Tuesday night. The U.S. proposals arrived in the Russian Foreign ministry on Wednesday, Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed diplomatic source as saying. "They are being studied now," the source was quoted as saying by Interfax.
