Moscow ready to reverse course if Washington reviews its shield plans

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia said on Friday that U.S. President Barack Obama's new administration offered a "window of opportunity" to resolve deep divisions over U.S. missile shield plans in central Europe.



Speaking at the start of the Munich Security Conference, an annual meeting of leaders to discuss foreign policy, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Medvedev is ready to reverse course if Washington reviews its shield plans.



Ivanov said Russia will not install Iskander missile systems in the Kaliningrad region if the United States gives up its missile shield plans.



"President Dmitry Medvedev from the very start said clearly that if there are no interceptors in Poland and the Czech Republic ... there will be no Iskanders in Kaliningrad," he said.



Moscow has strongly opposed U.S. plans to install 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic by 2013 as a threat to its security and nuclear deterrent. Washington says the defenses are needed to deter possible strikes from "rogue states" such as Iran.



Medvedev threatened in November to retaliate over the U.S. missile shield plans in central Europe by deploying Iskander-M missiles in the country's westernmost exclave of Kaliningrad, which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania.