Above: Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin speaks during an interview with CNN in the Black Sea resort Sochi, August 28, 2008.
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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned the West on Thursday against starting an arms race in Europe by stationing a U.S. missile defence shield near Russia's borders and said there was no basis for a new Cold War.
Putin, who has adopted a robust stance on Russia's intervention in Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia, blamed Washington rather than Moscow for resurrecting Soviet-style rhetoric.
"Today there are no ideological contradictions, there is no basis for a Cold War," Putin told a group of reporters.
"There is no basis for mutual animosity ... Russia has no imperialist ambitions," Putin said at a three-hour lunch briefing at his retreat in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Russia was criticized by the United States and European governments for sending troops into Georgia last month and then recognizing the two breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.
Some Western leaders accused Moscow of using Soviet-style tactics in dealing with its neighbor over South Ossetia. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney charged Moscow with using intimidation and "brute force".
"There is no more Soviet threat but they are trying to resurrect it," Putin said.
He questioned criticism of Russia for crushing Georgia's bid to retake South Ossetia by force, which prompted concern over energy security in the region and rattled Russian markets with shares losing more than 40 percent of their value since May.
"What did you expect us to do? Respond with a catapult? ... We punched the aggressor in the face," he said, adding that falls in the stock market were due to the global credit crisis not to Russia's intervention in Georgia.
After accusing the United States of acting like "a Roman emperor", Putin warned Poland and the Czech Republic against hosting the U.S. missile shield.
Washington says the shield is aimed against what it calls "rogue states", like Iran, but Moscow fears it will pose a direct threat to Russia's security.
"Our targeting of these countries will happen as soon as these missiles are brought," Putin said.
"Please do not instigate an arms race in Europe. It is not needed. What should we do? Sit pretty while they deploy missiles?"
He also said if Ukraine, a neighboring former Soviet republic, joined NATO, it "would be very detrimental".
Asked about any possible talk of sanctions against Russia, Putin asked: "Is this a free market? Is it normal to talk to others to persuade them to stop trading with us?"
Source: Reuters
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