NATO has expressed serious concerns about the compatibility of Russian plans to deploy missiles in a western Russian enclave with arm control arrangements.
Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev announced yesterday the deployment of conventionally armed ballistic missiles in Kaliningrad, which borders Lithuania and Poland, in response to US missile defence plans.
NATO spokesman Robert Pszczel said the deployment, if confirmed, would raise serious worries concerning the conformity with existing arms control arrangements that are important for European security.
He said that the placing of these Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad region would not help NATO and Russia to improve their relationship.
Mr Medvedev announced yesterday that the Iskander missiles were being deployed to neutralise the threat from planned US missile interceptors in Poland and radar facilities in the Czech Republic.
The US wants to deploy the shield in the central European nations by 2011-2013 to ward off potential attacks by so-called ‘rogue’ states.
Russia has denounced the plan as a threat to its own security.
It has in the past expressed its intention to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty signed between Moscow and Washington in 1987, which bans missiles with ranges of 500-5,500km.
Current Iskanders, which carry conventional warheads and which NATO calls SS-26 Stones, are supposed to have a range of up to 280km, but an updated version Russia aims to deploy between 2009-2015 could reach close to 500km.
Russia and NATO have not held regular talks since the military alliance decided that their resumption was conditional on a 12 August ceasefire to the brief Russian-Georgian war being respected.
Meanwhile, there is speculation that President Medvedev could resign from his post in 2009 to pave the way for Vladimir Putin to return to the Kremlin.
Vedomosti newspaper reported the story today citing an unidentified source close to the Kremlin.
Mr Medvedev just yesterday proposed increasing the presidential term to six years from four years, a step the newspaper said was part of a plan drawn up by Vladislav Surkov, who serves as Mr Medvedev's first deputy chief of staff.
Under the plan, Mr Medvedev could implement changes to the constitution and unpopular social reforms ‘so that Putin could return to the Kremlin for a longer period’, the newspaper said.
Under this scenario President Medvedev could resign early citing changes to the constitution and then presidential elections could take place in 2009.
The paper said Mr Putin, who is currently prime minister, could then rule for two six-year terms, so from 2009 to 2021.
The paper cited Mr Putin's spokesman as saying he saw no reason for Mr Putin to return to power in 2009.
