Putin Warns Of Retaliation To Missile Plan

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow could take "retaliatory steps" if Washington proceeds with plans to build a missile defense system for Europe, including possibly aiming nuclear weapons at targets on the continent.

Speaking to foreign reporters days before he travels to Germany for the annual summit with President Bush and the other Group of Eight leaders, Putin assailed the White House plan to place a radar system in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in neighboring Poland.

In an interview last week, Mr. Bush said he explained to Putin that the new defense system was designed to protect NATO allies from a missile fired by Iran or North Korea, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod. But neither Iran nor North Korea has a missile that can reach Europe, providing Putin with a way to confront the United States at a critical time for him.

"We are being told the anti-missile defense system is targeted against something that does not exist. Doesn't it seem funny to you, to say the least?" an irritated Putin said.

He added that the planned missile shield would cover Russia's territory up to the Ural Mountains.

"It would be funny if it wasn't so sad," he said.

Putin lamented that the planned system would be "an integral part of the U.S. nuclear arsenal" in Europe — an unprecedented step. "It simply changes the entire configuration of international security."

He said he hoped that U.S. officials would change their minds regarding the missile plan, warning that Moscow was preparing a tit-for-tat response.

"If this doesn't happen, then we disclaim responsibility for our retaliatory steps, because it is not we who are the initiators of the new arms race, which is undoubtedly brewing in Europe," Putin said.

"The strategic balance in the world is being upset and in order to restore this balance without creating an anti-missile defense on our territory we will be creating a system of countering that anti-missile system, which is what we are doing now," Putin said.

Last week, Russia tested a new ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads and a new cruise missile. While Western analysts said the system has probably been under development for several years, Putin has described the test as part of Moscow's response to the U.S. anti-missile plan.

Putin also suggested that Russia could respond to the threat by aiming its nuclear weapons at Europe.

"If a part of the strategic nuclear potential of the United States appears in Europe and, in the opinion of our military specialists will threaten us, then we will have to take appropriate steps in response. What kind of steps? We will have to have new targets in Europe," Putin said, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin. These could be targeted with "ballistic or cruise missiles or maybe a completely new system" he said.

Putin also suggested that in the absence of a real threat from Iranian and North Korean missiles, the U.S. plan could be an attempt to spoil Russia's relations with Europe.

In Iran's first official response to the U.S. missile-defense plan, Supreme National Security Council head Ali Larijani said "claims by U.S. officials that installing a missile defense system in Europe is aimed at confronting Iranian missiles and protecting Europe against Iran is the joke of the year," according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

"The range of Iran's missiles doesn't reach Europe at all," the agency quoted him as saying.

Relations between Moscow and Washington have soured in the past year. The two former Cold War foes are at odds over Washington's missile plans, Russia's conflicts with former Soviet nations — including Ukraine, Georgia and Estonia — and U.S. concerns of democratic backsliding in Russia.

Mr. Bush leaves Washington Monday on an eight-day, six-country European jaunt, including the G-8 meeting in Germany.

The president is beginning his trip in the Czech Republic, with a scheduled arrival in Prague Monday afternoon, and will wrap up his tour with a visit to Poland — the former Soviet satellites where he wants to base major parts of the new shield.

Visiting the two countries on the sidelines of the summit is likely to be taken in Moscow as a very deliberate snub by Mr. Bush.

"This is a distinctive message that is as easily understandable in Russian as it is in English," said Simon Serfaty, a senior adviser to the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The message is that we're going to do what we're going to do, and your concerns about the deployment of some marginal capabilities designed for defense purposes in Central Europe are not going to impress me."

Besides the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland, Bush also has Italy, Albania and Bulgaria on his travel itinerary. He has meetings planned with at least 15 foreign leaders, plus the Pope, and his schedule isn't final yet.