Vladimir Putin urges Barack Obama to give up idea of missile shield in Europe

Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urges American President-elect Barack Obama to give up the idea of a missile shield in Eastern Europe, warning that Moscow will reserve its right to answer in the same manner, AFP informs.

The project does not target Russia’s strategic potential and therefore we cannot not answer in the same manner, Putin declared in Sankt Petersburg in a press conference. He added that if the new American administration drops its plans to install the shield, Russia will forget all about it.

Russia’s president Dmitri Medvedev estimated in Lima on Monday that Barack Obama could have a more open stance regarding the Eastern European missile shield. Medvedev declared on November 5 that Russia would set up its own missiles in Iskander in Kaliningrad, a Russian territory surrounded by European countries to neutralize the elements of the American missile shield.