Agence France-Presse,
Moscow: Reports on Russia's suspension of missile deployment in its Kaliningrad enclave were misguided as Moscow planned to deploy missiles only if Washington went ahead with its missile shield defense, Russia's foreign ministry said late Friday.
“Many foreign media and even politicians and officials reacted to this 'suspension' of missiles in the Kaliningrad region. But no one is suspending anything, because there is nothing to suspend,” the ministry said in a statement published on its website.
“President Dmitry Medvedev mentioned placing Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad region as one of possible military measures that could be taken in answer to the US missile shield plans, and we repeatedly stressed that it would be an answering measure,” the ministry explained.
“Unless there is a missile shield defense, there will be no Iskanders in the Kaliningrad region, but if the missile shield plan is implemented, we will answer,” the ministry added.
Moscow had repeatedly expressed fury at the plans of former US president George W. Bush to install missile shield facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying it threatened Russia's national security.
Medvedev said late last year that the short-range Iskander missiles would be installed in Russia's Baltic Kaliningrad territory, which borders Poland, to “neutralise” the threat posed by a US missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
But Moscow has adopted a softer line since Bush's successor Barack Obama took office last week, with a Russian military official quoted by the Interfax news agency Wednesday as saying that the Iskander move had been “suspended” due to the new administration's lack of interest.
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed confidence Thursday that Russia would freeze a move to deploy missiles on Warsaw's doorstep, following his meeting with his Russian opposite number Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The United States has insisted its missile plans are not directed against Russia but aimed at countering what it described as a missile threat from “rogue states” such as Iran.
