Putin: missiles could target Europe
Updated on 04 June 2007
President Putin raises the spectre of a new arms race by warning that he could target Russian missiles at Europe.
Moscow has criticised US plans to deploy parts of a global missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Now President Putin says it could increase the chances of a nuclear conflict.
Mr Putin has been speaking ahead of the G8 summit in Germany this week, getting negotiations off to a frosty start.
As hints go, it was a fairly broad one. Last week Russia test-fired a missile which it said could counter any missile defence system.
But just in case the message hadn't registered, President Putin decided to back it up with some extraordinarily strong rhetoric to invited members of Moscow's foreign press.
He told them that the "unprecedented" decision by the United States to deploy missiles in eastern Europe would require a retaliatory response, and that naturally Russia would have to have new targets in Europe.
'We cannot rule out, that our American partners may reconsider their decision. But if that does not happen, we relieve ourselves of the responsibility for our reactions, because it is not us that initiated this new arms race.'President Putin
At the heart of it all is America's missile defence system, under development for most of the decade.
The United States insists its interceptors are designed to thwart a potential Iranian or North Korean nuclear attack - a position President Putin derided.
The US plan requires radar detection systems in the Czech republic and Poland, where the interceptor missiles themselves will also be deployed
Russia possesses nearly 500 intercontinental ballistic missiles, capable of carrying nearly 1800 nuclear warheads - deployed across the country.
But Russia's huge military arsenal has always had to be pointed at something. The difference here is the rhetoric.
Mr Putin's other audience is the G8 leaders he will be meeting Germany on Wednesday. Here, Downing Street said Russia had to decide whether or not it wanted a consrtuctive relationship with the west.
