Putin Rattles Nuclear Sabre

Threatens to aim nukes at European cities
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 4, 2007 5:32 AM CDT
Putin Rattles Nuclear Sabre
Russian President Vladimir Putin presides a Security Council meeting in the Moscow Kremlin, Saturday, June 2, 2007. Putin warned in an interview published Sunday that U.S. plans to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe would force Moscow to find missile targets of its own in Europe.(AP Photo/ITAR-TASS,Presidential...   (Associated Press)

Russia is threatening to aim nuclear missiles at major European cities for the first time since the Cold War, the Daily Telegraph reports. Vladimir Putin's provocation, on the eve of the G-8 summit, was the latest in an increasingly strident string of anti-western pronouncements in response to US plans to create a missile defense shield in eastern Europe.

"What kind of steps are we going to take in response? Of course we are going to acquire new targets in Europe," Putin announced in Moscow yesterday. Diplomats told the Telegraph the remarks may be aimed at loosening support for the missile shield from other G8 countries, especially Germany and Italy. (More Russia stories.)

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