US blasts Moscow's missile threat
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates yesterday blasted Russia's threat to deploy missiles in its Baltic Sea territory of Kaliningrad in response to a new US missile defence system.
"Within hours of the conclusion of the American election, Russian President (Dmitry) Medvedev responded by threatening to place missiles in Kaliningrad -- hardly the welcome a new American administration deserves." said Gates.
"Such provocative remarks are unnecessary and misguided," he added in comments to reporters after a Nato meeting in Estonia.
Just a day after Barack Obama triumphed in the US presidential election, Medvedev threatened to shift missiles to Kaliningrad.
The territory is sandwiched between ex-communist Nato members Poland and Lithuania and is already home to a large Russian base.
Medvedev said the move would "neutralise" a planned US system, which foresees the deployment of missile interceptors in Poland and a linked radar in the Czech Republic, both Nato members that were once part of the Soviet bloc.
Comments