Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday he would call off his decision to deploy missiles in the enclave of Kaliningrad, his response to the US scrapping missile shield plans in Europe.
US President Barack Obama last week announced Washington would not put interceptor missiles in Poland or a radar system in the Czech Republic, parts of a project viewed by the US as protection against potential attacks from Iran.
Medvedev, who met Obama in New York on Wednesday, has described that decision as “courageous.”
Dealing with the issues of the US missile shield, Iran and nuclear disarmament are major elements of attempts by Medvedev and Obama to reset thorny bilateral relations that had plunged to post-Cold War lows under the administration of former US president George W. Bush.
To Russia, the US missile shield plan for eastern Europe was a threat to its security.
Medvedev had vowed to put Iskander missiles in the Baltic region of Kaliningrad, bordering NATO members Lithuania and Poland, if Washington went ahead with the plan.
“When I announced this decision I said it was a reaction to the creation of a third positioning region,” Medvedev said in Pittsburgh, where he attended a G20 summit.
“Now that this decision was scrapped, I will make a decision not to deploy Iskanders in the appropriate region of our country,” he said.
A senior Russian military official said earlier this week that the military would reverse plans to deploy Iskanders after Obama’s announcement. But Russian armed forces chief of staff, General Nikolai Makarov, later said such a decision should be made by the president.
The West suspects Iran of seeking to make nuclear weapons. Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, has so far blocked attempts to impose strong sanctions against Tehran.
However, Medvedev, annoyed by reports about Iran building a new uranium enrichment plant, warned Tehran to respond to international concerns and give up any military elements of its nuclear program.
Medvedev, clearly siding with the Western condemnation of Iran’s plans, said Tehran should start cooperating with UN inspectors by the time it meets international negotiators for talks on Thursday.
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