Russia on Wednesday warned the West that it could deploy missiles on the EU’s borders to strike against missile defence facilities that the United States plans to install in Eastern Europe. President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia was prepared to deploy Iskander missiles, which officials said have a range of up to 500 kilometres (310 miles), in the Kaliningrad exclave that borders EU members Poland and Lithuania. If measures were not taken to limit the plans, “the Russian Federation will deploy in the west and the south of the country modern weapons systems that could be used to destroy the European component of the US missile defence.”
“One of these steps could be the deployment of the Iskander missile systems in Kaliningrad,” Medvedev said in a televised address. Romania and Poland have agreed to host part of a revamped US missile shield which Washington said is aimed solely at rogue states like Iran but Moscow believes would also target its soil. The issue has repeatedly been an obstacle to a “reset” in relations between Russia and the United States and Medvedev said it could impact disarmament cooperation with its former Cold War foe.
