Moscow
Defense Secretary Robert Gates this week tried to persuade Russian leaders that an American plan to put missile defense components in Eastern Europe wasn’t a threat to Russia. After meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Gates said the Russians conceded that the small-scale, limited anti-missile system, expected to be completed by 2013, wasn’t a problem now. But, he said, they worried that it could be the first step toward a defense against Russian missiles. The U.S. says the system is designed to intercept a nuclear missile fired from Iran, which is projected to have such weapons by 2015. “Anyone who would argue that Iran or other countries in the Middle East might not have missiles with that kind of range and capability would be making a very risky assessment,” Gates said.
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