'This project is aimed against the strategic potential of Russia. And we can only give it an adequate response,' said Mr Putin. -- PHOTO: AP
SAINT PETERSBURG - RUSSIAN Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday urged US President-elect Barack Obama to drop the planned US missile shield in Eastern Europe, warning of an 'adequate response' from Moscow.
Putin hopes for better ties under Obama
MOSCOW - RUSSIAN news agencies report that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said Russia wants to reach a compromise on arms control issues with the incoming US administration.
Russia and the US have so far failed to negotiate an extension or replacement of the 1991 Start arms reduction treaty or a replacement.
'This project is aimed against the strategic potential of Russia. And we can only give it an adequate response,' Mr Putin said at a conference on human rights law in Saint Petersburg.
But he added: '(If) there are not missile defence sites in Poland and the Czech Republic - there will be no retaliatory measures either.' Mr Obama, who takes office on January 20, has yet to give firm details over whether he intends to continue the plan which was created by the outgoing administration of Republican President George W. Bush.
Mr Putin added that if the new Obama administration was prepared to drop the plan, then the 'issue would be dropped' and the 'negative tendency' would be broken.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at the weekend that while the Bush administration's position looked 'extremely inflexible' then 'the position of the president-elect looks more careful.' Russia has repeatedly expressed fury over US plans to place a missile defence radar system in the Czech Republic and linked interceptor missiles in Poland.
Earlier this month Moscow warned it could place missiles in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, close to Poland, in response. -- AFP
