Russia to deploy new weapons to counter US missile shield
By
, Associated Press | Posted Nov 10th, 2015 @ 1:01pmHis statement comes amid a severe strain in Russia’s relations with the U.S. and its NATO allies, which have plunged to the lowest point since the Cold War over the crisis in Ukraine.
For
many years, the Kremlin has protested the U.S.-led missile shield,
voicing concern that it could eventually become capable of intercepting
Russia’s nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, thus
eroding the strength of the nation’s nuclear deterrent.
Putin argued Tuesday that the U.S. has kept working on the missile shield despite Iran’s deal with six world powers that has curbed its nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions.
“So, references to the Iranian and the North Korean nuclear missile threat just have served to cover up the true plans, and their true task is to neutralize nuclear potential of other nuclear powers, … Russia in particular,” Putin said. “Regrettably, our concerns and cooperation proposals haven’t been taken into account.”
Putin added that in the future Russia may also work on the development of its own missile defense systems, but will now focus primarily on commissioning new strike weapons.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia aims to spend less on its missile-defense system than the United States has done.
“The Russian president has repeatedly said that we are not going to follow the United States’ lead and spend stratospheric amounts on a missile-defense system,” he told journalists. “The president has been saying the options we choose are much lower in cost but no less, and maybe even more, efficient.”