Official: Russia may response to NATO missile shield plans

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia may deliver a "technical response" to NATO over its plans to deploy a European missile defense program, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Thursday, Oct 18, according to RIA Novosti.

"The Russian response [to European missile defense] is currently mostly virtual, political and diplomatic in character, but under certain circumstances we would be forced to deliver a technical response, which I don't think you'll like," Rogozin said at a meeting with NATO's parliamentary assembly in Moscow.

Rogozin holds special responsibility for Russia's defense industry and until December 2011 served as Russia's ambassador to NATO.

Russia and NATO agreed on cooperation over European missile defense at a summit in Lisbon, Portugal in 2010, however talks reached deadlock over US refusal to give legal guarantees that the system would not be deployed against Russian deterrents. Moscow said it would take unspecified military, technical, and diplomatic measures in response.

Russia said that if no agreement with NATO is reached over the missile defense issue, it would consider deploying Iskander short-range mobile ballistic missile systems in the Kaliningrad exclave.