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Russia may target Poland, Czech Republic

Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW: Russia may target its missiles against Poland and the Czech republic if the U.S. sets up its missile defence shield planned in the two East European countries.

"If the Polish and Czech governments approve the decision [to deploy U.S. anti-missiles] our strategic missile forces will be able to target those missile sites," said Russian Strategic Missile Forces Commander Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov said.

The commander told a press conference on Monday that Russia could quickly resume production of medium range missiles if Moscow decided to walk out of a Soviet-era treaty with the U.S. banning their deployment.

Russian General Staff Chief Col. Gen. Yuri Balyevsky said at the weekend that Moscow would pull out of the treaty is the U.S. went ahead with the deployment of missile defences in Europe.

"Asymmetric response"

The Russian missile forces chief also said Russia would build "missiles with an alterable hypersonic movement vector" in the near future as part of an "asymmetric response" to the stationing of U.S. anti-missile systems in Europe.

He said Russia was engaged in talks with the U.S. to prevent the construction of an American missile shield close to Russian borders.

The Polish and Czech Prime Ministers have supported the deployment of U.S. missiles, while German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged caution and consultations with Russia.

Russia has rejected U.S. assurances that the missiles were needed to protect Europe from Iranian and North Korean missiles, and said their deployment would threaten Russian security.

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