Russia did not want a revived arms race with the United States, and has been forced to start a new weapons programme in response to Washington’s planned missile shield in Europe, a Kremlin spokesperson said on Saturday.
”Russia had no intention of getting into an arms race. It is just a necessary response, to defend and protect our interests,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said when asked to explain Moscow’s plans on the sidelines of an annual security forum in Munich.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday sparked concerns in the West in a speech in which he heralded a wealthy Russia able to compete in a new ”arms race”.
”There is a new turn in the arms race … Russia will always respond to this new challenge,” Putin said, promising ”new weapons that are qualitatively the same or better than those of other countries.”
According to a Kremlin official, Russia’s new weapons programme ”is not an end in itself”.
”We are obliged to respond to the US project with these arms. But the only response from the Americans is: ‘Russia’s rhetoric is unacceptable’,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Peskov insisted that Moscow was not seeking a confrontation with Washington.
The US is currently negotiating with Warsaw and Prague on the possible installation of 10 interceptor missile sites in Poland by 2012 and associated radar stations in the Czech Republic.
Elements of Washington’s global anti-missile defence system are already in place or are being planned in the US itself, Britain and Japan.
The United States says the shield is needed to ward off potential attacks by what it calls ”rogue states”, notably Iran.
But Russia strongly opposes the plans and considers them a grave threat to its national security.
Washington has dismissed such suggestions.
US State Department spokesperson Tom Casey said on Friday that the missile shield programme was ”the antithesis of the kinds of arms building that you have seen in the past”. — AFP
