Russia

Medvedev ready to back down if US cancels missile plan

Article published on the 2008-11-13 Latest update 2008-11-13 16:15 TU

Russian President Dimitri Medvedev
(Photo: Reuters)

Russia could cancel the placement of missiles on the Polish border if US President-elect Barack Obama scraps plans for a missile defense system in central Europe, Russian President Dimitri Medvedev said in an interview with French daily Le Figaro that was published on Thursday.

The Russian President said that his comments, made just after Obama’s election, were intended for a domestic audience and weren’t intended to coincide with any international event.

It was Medvedev’s first interview with the international press since the US election, and he used it to soften his threat to deploy missiles on Russia’s eastern border with Poland – and thus the European Union.

“We are ready to abandon this decision to deploy the missiles in Kaliningrad if the new American administration, after analysing the real usefulness of a system to respond to 'rogue states', decides to abandon its anti-missile system," he said.

The United States claims that its missile-defence system, which includes radar stations in the Czech Republic and a missile battery in Poland, is to counter threats from “rogue states” such as Iran, but Medvedev remains skeptical and views the military buildup on is border as “a real problem".

Medvedev described an alternative plan to assure global security that would include sharing radar information between the EU, Russia and Russian allies such as Azerbaijan.

“I don’t think that is a credible offer,” US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said, reacting to Medvedev’s offer to cancel the missile deployment.

"Quite frankly I am not clear what the missiles would be for in Kaliningrad. After all the only real emerging threat on Russia's periphery is Iran and I don't think the Iskander missile has the range to get there from Kaliningrad," he said.

"So, this is an issue apparently between ourselves and the Russians. Why they would threaten to point missiles at European nations seems quite puzzling to me," Gates added.

Regarding the financial crisis, the Russian leader admitted that, despite measures taken to regulate banking, there has been capital flight out of the country, but nationalization of banks, a solution proposed by the UK, was not an option.

Wildly fluctuating oil prices weren’t a worry for Russia, Medvedev said, because of a contingency fund that was established to assure that social programs would receive consistent funding throughout the turmoil.