Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday warned Romania and Poland they could find themselves in the sights of Russian rockets because they are hosting elements of a US missile shield that Moscow considers a threat to its security.
Putin issued his starkest warning yet over the missile shield, saying that Moscow had stated repeatedly that it would have to take retaliatory steps but that Washington and its allies had ignored the warnings.
Earlier this month the US military -- which says the shield is needed to protect from Iran, not threaten Russia -- switched on the Romanian part of the shield. Work is going ahead on another part of the shield, in Poland.
"It will be the same case with Poland," he said.
Officials take part in the official ground-breaking ceremony of a NATO ballistic missile defence facility in Redzikowo near Slupsk, Poland on May 13, 2016. (Reuters photo)
"How can that not create a threat for us?" Putin asked.
"We've been repeating like a mantra that we will be forced to respond... Nobody wants to hear us. Nobody wants to conduct negotiations with us."
Putin sounded a defiant note over Crimea, the Ukrainian region which Russia annexed in 2014. Moscow said it was acting on the will of the Crimean people, who voted to join Russia, but Western governments say it was an illegal land grab.
The Russian leader also touched on relations with Turkey, which have been toxic since the Turkish military shot down a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian-Turkish border last November. Ankara said the plane strayed into Turkish airspace, an allegation Moscow denies.
Putin was asked about the South Stream project, a planned gas pipeline from Russia that would have gone under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and onwards to southern Europe. Russia shelved the project after Bulgaria backed out.
He blamed the US government and the European Commission, saying they had pressured Sofia to withdraw. But he said Russia was going ahead with an extension of its Nordstream pipeline in the Baltic, and he hoped no one would try to hinder that project.
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