Russia Welcomes Barack Obama With Deployment of Nuclear-Capable Missiles

The Kremlin gave Barack Obama a glacial welcome to the world stage when Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, ordered the deployment of nuclear-capable missiles on Nato’s borders for the first time since the Cold War.

In what appeared to be a deliberate attempt to rattle the president-elect, Mr Medvedev said that short-range Iskander surface-to-surface missiles would be stationed in Russia’s baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, which borders EU states Poland and Lithuania.

Delivering his most aggressively anti-American speech yet, Mr Medvedev said he was ordering the deployment in retaliation to a missile defence shield that the United States wants to build in central Europe by 2011.

In comments likely to unnerve the Obama camp, the Russian leader even hinted that he was prepared to use the missiles to destroy the shield, which is to be erected in Poland and the Czech Republic.

“I have approved a new configuration for the military forces of our country,” Mr Medvedev said in his first ever annual address to the two houses of the Russian parliament. “To neutralise – if necessary – the anti-missile system, an Iskander missile system will be deployed in the Kaliningrad region.”

Although the Iskander is normally equipped with conventional warheads, it can be modified to carry a nuclear payload.

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Russia Preparing For Nuclear Confrontation?

Russia announced an overhaul of its strategic nuclear forces and army yesterday, in the clearest sign yet that Moscow may be preparing for a possible full-scale military confrontation with the US and Nato.

Speaking after Russia carried out its biggest military exercises since the cold war, Dmitry Medvedev, the president, said Russia would build a space defencse system and a fleet of nuclear submarines by 2020.

This summer’s brief war with Georgia, which led to a further rift between Moscow and the west, showed the need for Russia to have a strong military in a state of “permanent readiness”, Medvedev said.

His defence initiative is the biggest in Russia for at least a decade. It comes amid bitter opposition from Moscow to Washington’s plan to site a missile defence system in central Europe – a project the Kremlin says upsets Europe’s strategic balance. The move is also a riposte to US-backed plans for Georgia and Ukraine to join Nato.

Moscow opposes Nato’s further expansion, arguing that it challenges its regional “privileged interests”. Moscow also accuses the US of encouraging, and even participating in, Georgia’s attack on the breakaway enclave of South Ossetia.

“Just recently we had to rebuff aggression unleashed by the Georgian regime. As we discovered, a local smouldering conflict – even occasionally a frozen one – can flare up into a genuine war,” Medvedev said, addressing Russian troops.

He said Russia needed a “guaranteed nuclear deterrent system” in place by 2020. The armed forces had to be prepared for “various political and military scenarios,” he warned.

He promised large-scale construction of warships, including nuclear submarines armed with cruise missiles, and also announced plans for a system of air and space defence. The president promised to improve living conditions for Russian soldiers, as well as better military education and training.

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