US Missile Shield Could Launch A New Arms Race: Putin

[Purveyor]

Source: Thomson Financial)

VIENNA (Thomson Financial) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that he feared a US plan to build a missile defence system in eastern Europe could launch a new arms race.

'What has happened in Europe that is so negative that one should need to fill central Europe with arms?' Putin asked at a joint press conference in Vienna with Austrian President Heinz Fischer.

'Why should we build a new base in Bulgaria or a new base in Romania, why install a positioning radar in the Czech Republic and missiles in Poland?

'It will lead to nothing else than a new arms race and we find this completely counter-productive,' he added, following talks with his Austrian counterpart.


Read more: http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=43853763732672

[Lint Head]

1. Putin is right. He's the son of a bitch that we will be racing with.

:dem:

[CHIMO]

2. Putin denounces US plan for missile shield

Relations between Russia and the west are at their lowest ebb for 20 years, and senior European and Nato officials expect no let-up in the confrontational rhetoric from Moscow until Mr Putin's eight-year presidency comes to an end next year and the power struggle for the succession is resolved.

While Mr Putin denounced the Americans in Vienna, a principal contender to succeed him, Sergei Ivanov, argued that the US radar station planned for the Czech Republic would be able to spy deep into Russia. Mr Ivanov, a deputy prime minister, former defence minister, and, like Mr Putin, a KGB veteran, dismissed the US's insistence that the missile shield elements are to counter Iranian ballistic missiles, and not Russia's.

"The radar the US is planning to deploy in the Czech Republic will be capable of scanning air space up to the Ural mountains," he said. Reiterating warnings of retaliation, he added: "A more efficient sword can be found for every shield."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2086702,00.html

[Cobalt-60]

3. There is no shield

Force shields are science fiction.
This is a missile battery.
And cutting off the booster early on an interceptor makes can make it a ballistic missile.
This is not lost on Putin.

[struggle4progress]

4. Bingo!