MOSCOW, May 1 (UPI) -- U.S. BMD bases could threaten Russia the way Pershing missiles did, Russia's leader said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made the comparison Friday after talks with Czech president Vaclav Klaus. Putin's remarks appeared to be part of his sustained diplomatic campaign to block the deployment of U.S. ballistic missile defense interceptors in Central Europe over the next few years.
Putin said the Bush administration's plans to build a BMD interceptor base in Poland and another base for advanced BMD tracking radars in the Czech Republic were comparable to the deployment of mobile, intermediate-range Pershing II ballistic missiles in Europe in the 1980s, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Russia was unable to develop any adequate defense against the Pershings after mounting an enormous but unsuccessful diplomatic protest campaign against them. Eventually the Pershings were scrapped under the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty.
In January, the Bush administration stated its intention to deploy BMD systems in Central Europe. Putin said Friday that that plan "means a dramatic change in the security system in Europe."
According to the RIA Novosti report, Putin said the new U.S. BMD plan paralleled the Pershing deployment decision in the 1980s.
"In the event of a military confrontation between the Soviet Union and the West, those missiles could have quickly destroyed the largest Russian cities, while the United States would have remained invulnerable," RIA Novosti said.
The INF treaty scrapped nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 300 miles to 3,400 miles.
However, on Feb. 10, Putin stated that that the INF Treaty was no longer in Russia's national interests. On Feb. 14, Gen. Yury Baluyevsky, chief of the Russian General Staff, said Russia might leave the INF unilaterally.
