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Russia piles pressure on EU over missile shield Adrian Blomfield Russia threatened to site short-range nuclear missiles in a second location on the European Union's border yesterday if the United States refuses to abandon plans to erect a missile defence shield. In what appeared to be a fresh attempt to divide the West, a senior army general said that Iskander missiles could be deployed in Belarus if US proposals to place 10 interceptor missiles and a radar in Poland and the Czech Republic go ahead. "Any action meets a counter-action, and this is the case with elements of the US missile defence in Poland and the Czech Republic," said Gen Vladimir Zaritsky, the chief of artillery and rocket forces for Russia's ground troops. In itself, the warning is unlikely to alarm Western governments. Nato brushed off the suggestion yesterday. "Any discussion of targeting Western Europe with missiles, from any party, is a) anachronistic; b) unwelcome and c) unhelpful," said James Appathurai, a Nato spokesman in Brussels.
Russia, which insists that the missile shield is a plot to undermine its nuclear deterrents, has already said that Iskander missiles could be deployed in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, which lies in EU territory. President Vladimir Putin has also threatened to retrain Russia's nuclear arsenal on targets within Europe.
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