Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Russia Threatens Ukraine

Russia has said it may target its missiles at Ukraine if its neighbour joins Nato and accepts the deployment of the US missile defence shield.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made the comments in Moscow alongside Ukraine's President, Viktor Yushchenko.

Mr Putin has condemned US plans to include Poland and the Czech Republic in its missile defence shield.

The leaders had been meeting in urgent talks over a gas dispute and announced a deal to avoid disrupting supplies.

[...]

Speaking at a news conference at the Kremlin on Tuesday, Mr Putin said he had advised Ukraine not to join Nato, but admitted he would be unable to interfere in any such move.

"Restrictions on sovereignty... have already had certain consequences, such as the stationing of bases or a positioning area for missile defence in Eastern Europe, which we believe is aimed at neutralising our nuclear missile potential," he said.

"Russia therefore faces a need to take retaliatory action."


oy. The missile defense system proposed by the US for installation in Poland and Czech Republic is only sufficient to take the option of a single, double, or at best an ten missile salvo off the table. This causes issues only for those nations with a handful of missiles. However, as I wrote before, Russia finds this unacceptable as a limit on their use of nuclear weapons in specific scenarios.

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