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Medvedev accuses US of forcing NATO partners into missile shield
Nov 24, 2011, 13:57 GMT
Moscow - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday accused the United States of forcing its NATO partners to take part in a planned missile defence system in Eastern Europe, the news agency Interfax reported.
'Why are you asking us, the Americans decided that,' Medvedev said in the northern Russian city of Petrozavodsk, quoting what he said were the reactions of alliance partners. 'We're just NATO members, we're just supposed to supply our land,' he continued.
Russia and Washington are at loggerheads over the planned missile shield, with Medvedev on Wednesday ordering army commanders to prepare to deploy ballistic missiles to the country's border with Europe.
Russia this week demanded an agreement be reached, in which it is included as a partner in the planned shield, before a meeting of NATO heads in Chicago in 2012.
Otherwise the alliance would have crossed a 'red line', the head of parliament's foreign affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachev said Thursday.
NATO wants Russian cooperation in the shield, but with two separate, but closely coordinated, systems. Russia wants just one common shield.
While Washington argues that the shield is meant to defend against Iranian missiles, Russia, the original target when the shield was first mooted during the Cold War, fears it could be too easily turned on it instead.
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