Russia yields to Obama Star Wars U-turn

Published on Saturday 19 September 2009 19:55

RUSSIA last night signalled it would scrap plans to deploy missiles near Poland as relations with America took a turn for the better.

The former superpower had threatened to put short-range nuclear rockets in its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad if America went ahead with a proposed missile-defence system in central Europe.

It effectively axed the plan yesterday, just 24 hours after US President Barack Obama announced he would drop the "Star Wars" scheme he inherited from George W Bush.

Bush had insisted the missile-defence system, which would see rockets in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic, was needed to defend Europe and the US from Iran.

But Russia always felt the new missile shield was aimed at its territory – and not Iran. It has been lobbying hard for Obama to drop the scheme amid talk that the dispute could spark a new Cold War.

Yesterday one of Russia's deputy defence ministers, Vladimir Popovkin, told Ekho Moskvy, the country's leading independent radio station, radio that Obama's move has made the deployment of Iskander short-range missiles in Kaliningrad unnecessary.

"Reason has prevailed over ambitions," Popovkin said. "Naturally, we will cancel countermeasures which Russia has planned in response."

Popovkin later said the final decision could only be made by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who has yet to rule on the Russian response.

Obama's decision to scrap the plan was based largely on a new US intelligence assessment that Iran's effort to build a nuclear-capable long-range missile would take three to five years longer than originally thought.

Russian experts had always queried why a shield built to defend America from Iran should be based in central Europe. A new US missile- defence plan will rely on a network of sensors and interceptor missiles based at sea, on land and in the air as a bulwark against Iranian short- and medium-range missiles.

Medvedev hailed Obama's decision as a "responsible move", but Russian officials have given no indication yet that Moscow could edge closer to the US over Iran. Washington is counting on Moscow to press Tehran over its nuclear plans. The two presidents meet this week at the United Nations.

Russia will want to see more signs of US friendship. It is lobbying for the US to lift trade restrictions in place since the Cold War and help Russia join the World Trade Organisation.