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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Medvedev orders Iskander missiles deployed in Kaliningrad |
| 2008-11-05 |
| President Dmitri Medvedev took advantage of the euphoria in America today to order the deployment of missiles inside Europe as a response to US plans for a missile defence shield. Speaking within hours of Barack Obama's election as the new US President, Mr Medvedev announced that Russia would base Iskander missiles in its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad next to the border with Poland. He did not say whether the short-range missiles would carry nuclear warheads. Mr Medvedev also cancelled earlier plans to withdraw three intercontinental ballistic missile regiments from western Russia. "An Iskander missile system will be deployed in the Kaliningrad region to neutralise if necessary the anti-ballistic missile system in Europe," Mr Medvedev said in his first state-of-the-nation address. He added that Russia was also ready to deploy its navy and to install electronic jamming devices to interfere with the US shield, which involves the deployment of a radar station in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland. His announcement prompted a burst of applause from government ministers and parliamentary deputies assembled in the Kremlin. The President failed to congratulate Mr Obama or even to mention him by name during his 85-minute state of the nation address televised live across Russia. Instead, in a criticism directed at the US, Mr Medvedev declared: "Mechanisms must be created to block mistaken, egoistical and sometimes simply dangerous decisions of certain members of the international community." He accused the West of seeking to encircle Russia and blamed the US for encouraging Georgia's "barbaric aggression" in the war over South Ossetia in August. He issued a warning that Russia would "not back down in the Caucasus". "The August crisis only accelerated the arrival of the crucial moment of truth. We proved, including to those who had been sponsoring the current regime in Georgia, that we are strong enough to defend our citizens and that we can indeed defend our national interests," Mr Medvedev said. "What we've had to deal with in the last few years - the construction of a global missile defence system, the encirclement of Russia by military blocs, unrestrained NATO enlargement and other 'gifts'... The impression is we are being tested to the limit." Outgoing President George W. Bush insists that the missile shield is aimed at rogue states such as Iran. But the plan has infuriated Moscow, which argues that it threatens Russia's security and that the US is ignoring its concerns. Mr Medvedev said that Russia had been forced to cancel its plans to withdraw the ballistic missiles, which have a range of 6,200 miles. He said: "We have told our partners more than once that we want positive cooperation, we want to act together to combat common threats, that we want to act together. But they, unfortunately, don't want to listen to us." In his only reference to the US election, he said that he hoped the new administration would work to repair its relationship with Moscow. He said: "I stress that we have no problem with the American people, no inborn anti-Americanism. And we hope that our partners, the US administration, will make a choice in favour of full-fledged relations with Russia." Mr Medvedev blamed the US for the global financial crisis, saying that the rest of the world had been "dragged down with it into recession". He claimed that the era of American domination after the collapse of the Soviet Union was now over. "The world cannot be ruled from one capital. Those who do not want to understand this will only create new problems for themselves and others," he said. Mr Medvedev, who was elected in March, also set out proposals to extend the presidential term from four years to six. He did not say whether the reform would apply to his current term. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #3 Let the left's number one son handle it. He's the chosen one after all. Prolly have them on the canadian border before he's done. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-11-05 23:14 |
| #2 And this time you can't redirect/avoid the issue at hand by talking about energy independence like you did first debate, mr. president-elect. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-11-05 15:13 |
| #1 I wonder how it feels to walk around all day with Putin's hand shoved up your ass? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-11-05 13:27 |