U.S. Missile Defenses Aimed at Russia, Minister Asserts

Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said yesterday that regardless of Washington's assertions to the contrary, U.S. missile defenses are targeting his country, ITAR-Tass reported (see GSN, Sept. 15).

"They tell us their missile shield is not aimed against us, but we tell them our calculations show it is aimed against us," Serdyukov said following a meeting in Washington with his U.S. counterpart, Robert Gates.
Moscow has maintained criticisms over U.S. plans to build a missile shield in Europe employing land- and sea-based versions of the Standard Missile 3 system as a safeguard against Iranian short- and medium-range missiles. Russia has questioned whether the proposed missile shield -- already scaled down from a Bush-era plan -- would undercut its own nuclear deterrent.