Kremlin warms to US signals and halts missile plan

Published on Wednesday 28 January 2009 20:55

RUSSIA has launched a diplomatic offensive in an attempt to improve its fraught relations with its old Cold-War rival following the inauguration of Barack Obama.

Apparently warming to the new president's possible backtracking on his predecessors' plans to deploy an anti-missile system in Central Europe, a Kremlin defence official yesterday said that Moscow will halt the deployment of short-range missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland.

In a statement quoted by the news agency Interfax, the unnamed official said: "The implementation of these plans has been halted in connection with the fact that the new US administration is not rushing through plans to deploy elements of the shield."

Moscow has furiously opposed American plans to site elements of its anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Dismissing Washington's claims that the shield aimed to protect Europe and the US from rogue states, Russia argued that it posed a direct military threat and therefore reserved the right to deploy its own forces as a countermeasure.

Although still unconfirmed by the Kremlin, the Russian statement was welcomed by Kurt Volker, the US ambassador to Nato, who described it as a "very positive step". It is the latest move from Moscow indicating that a thaw in relations between the two states is possible.

A Russian foreign ministry spokesman, Andrei Nesterenko, said that Russia had "received signals from the new American administration that it is ready to move forwards on the difficult subjects we have discussed in the past".

Mr Nesterenko added that Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, and Mr Obama could meet in April at a G20 summit in London.