Putin warns US over missile shield
Foreign Desk Report

MOSCOW—President Vladimir Putin warned the United States on Thursday that Russia could take retaliatory measures if Washington failed to take heed of its concerns over a missile defense shield in Europe.
“I can assure you that such steps are being prepared and we will take them. Where we should station what, that is for specialists of the Russian military’s general staff,” Putin said in response to a question about how to respond to the shield. The United States plans to place interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic as part of a shield Washington says is needed to counter possible attacks from “rogue states” such as Iran and North Korea.
Russia says the shield is a threat to its security and could spark an arms race, concerns U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates sought to ease in Moscow talks last week. Putin welcomed their efforts. “The latest contacts with our American colleagues show that they have indeed given some thought to the proposals we made and they are looking for a solution to the problems and for ways to ease our concerns,” Putin said.
Putin’s comments appeared to echo a warning made in July by First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov that Russia could deploy new missiles, including in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, in response to the missile shield. His warning on missile defense was in response to a question from a voter in Kaliningrad, Russia’s westernmost outpost, at a three-hour annual question-and-answer session. The Kremlin leader also said Russia was working on new types of nuclear weapons as part of a “grandiose” plan to boost the country’s defenses. Military experts have speculated that Russia could eventually deploy its new Iskander-M tactical missiles to counter the U.S. missile shield.
Russian generals say the shield would allow the United States to scan Russia’s territory as far as the Urals, and would give the Pentagon the capability to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles soon after launch. Putin has offered the United States joint use of a Russia-leased radar station in Azerbaijan as an alternative to the missile shield in Europe. Kaliningrad is surrounded by new NATO members Poland and Lithuania. The city of Kaliningrad — the former Prussian city of Koenigsberg which was seized by Russia as a World War Two trophy — is closer to Warsaw than Moscow.
Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Thursday in Warsaw that hosting the shield could help protect his country, citing a possible threat from Russia. Poland, which votes in a parliamentary election on Sunday, has previously said the shield was not linked to Russia. “This will boost our security ..... We have to remember that we are in a state of permanent threat. The Russians have not accepted the changes since 1989 and it is obvious that they consider us as within their sphere of influence,” he said at a news conference.”
Kaczynski was referring to the fall of communism in 1989, which ended Soviet domination over Poland. It was hardly the stuff of which a staunch U.S. ally is made. Opposition in India to a landmark nuclear deal sparked vocal anti-Americanism from leftist parties, who said the country was in danger of becoming a U.S. poodle. That rhetoric may be further emboldened by the government’s apparent climb-down on the deal.
But the spat cannot hide the fact the world’s two biggest democracies are moving ever closer, with stronger military and diplomatic ties, while millions of middle class Indians turn to the United States for education, jobs and consumer goods. The impasse over the accord — which had been hailed as historic by both President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — showed there may still be looming flashpoints like ties with Iran. Yet the fundamentals appear strong.
“The question is not whether India’s relations with the U.S. will improve or not,” said Naresh Chandra, India’s envoy to Washington from 1996 to 2001.
“The question is at what pace they will improve.” Opposition to the nuclear deal from the government’s communist allies has focused on the symbolism of closer U.S. ties. The left-of-centre Congress-led coalition has signalled it will back down rather than risk a snap election.
Under the accord, India could import U.S. nuclear fuel and reactors despite having tested nuclear weapons but not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The row saw a return to the leftist rhetoric that dominated India in the Cold War, when the country was run by socialist five-year plans and the government bought arms from the Soviet Union.
Now New Delhi and Washington are eager to feed off each other’s economies, and work to counterbalance the rise of China.—Agencies