 Russia will once again aim its missiles at targets in Europe if US plans to build a missile defence shield near RussiaÂ’s borders go ahead, President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying on Sunday. In an interview reported in ItalyÂ’s Corriere della Sera, Putin acknowledged RussiaÂ’s response risked restarting an arms race but he said Moscow would not be responsible for the consequences because Washington had started it.
Russia has not expressly targeted its missiles at Europe since the end of the Cold War but, asked if it would do this again if the US missile shield plan went ahead, Putin said: “Yes, naturally.”
| "Gotta have some missiles to shield against, y'know." |
“If the American nuclear capability widens across European territory, we will have to give ourselves new targets in Europe,” Italy’s leading daily quoted Putin as saying.
| There's logic in there somewhere. I'm probably just not well enough trained to find it. |
| Putin pressures the EU with missiles and (just as important) a shut-off in natural gas supplies. The EU quivers like a cheap house in an Iranian earthquake and boots us and our missile defense. Putin thus re-establishes some good-old-fashioned hegemony. Mission accomplished. |
Russia’s combative response to the US missile shield has prompted comparisons with the Cold War. Putin has directed angry rhetoric at the White House, last week calling US policy “imperialist”. Russia’s response to the US missile moves would be to develop “more effective offensive systems”, the Italian newspaper quoted Putin as saying. Washington says the shield is not a threat to Russia but is designed to protect against possible missile attacks from what it calls ‘rogue states’.
| And Poot seems to busily trying to fit Mother Russia into that definition. |
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