Russia ramps up anti-BMD shield rhetoric

摘要

Moscow's latest protests against allied ballistic missile defence (BMD) plans may be largely for domestic consumption prior to national elections in early 2012, but the hostile tone of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's comments casts a pall over NATO-Russian efforts to co-operate on missile defence, say Western diplomats. "What a rhetorical throwback to the Cold War," a Polish diplomatic source said on 25 November, adding the comments were "over the top". At issue is a 23 November declaration by Medvedev that Russia would deploy offensive weapon systems on its borders with Europe in response to the US-based BMD shield. Specifically, he said Moscow will consider deploying its Iskander strike missiles to Russia's Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad, between Lithuania and Poland, along with other weapons in western and southern Russia to counter parts of the BMD system. So far, allied nations Poland, Romania and Turkey have agreed to host radar-tracking or other BMD-related facilities.