Russia Promises 'Sword' Against U.S. Missile Shield

The official considered to be a leading contender to succeed President Vladimir Putin criticized a landmark Soviet-U.S. arms treaty as being a "relic of the Cold War," and promised that Russia would have a "sword" capable of piercing a U.S. missile shield. During a two-hour news conference recently, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov harshly criticized U.S. plans to deploy elements of its missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying that Moscow does not trust Washington's claims that they are intended to fend off potential missile threats from Iran. "A radar the U.S. is planning to deploy in the Czech Republic will be capable of scanning airspace up to the Ural Mountains," he said. Ivanov said that Russia was not going to build a strategic missile defense system similar to the one the United States is developing but would take "adequate steps" to respond to the U.S. move. "A more efficient sword can be found for every shield," he said. Ivanov also criticized the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in 1987 by the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan. It eliminated an entire class of midrange missiles then based in Europe. Ivanov called the treaty "a relic, a rudiment of the Cold War," saying that dozens of nations had developed intermediate range missiles since the pact was signed and that many of them are located close to Russia's borders. But he stopped short of saying that Moscow would opt out of the pact. Ivanov also defended Putin's move to suspend Russia's observance of another critical Cold War-era agreement - the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty - which limits the number of military aircraft, tanks and other non-nuclear heavy weapons around Europe.