Russian Threats Miss Point of Proposed Missile Defenses, Official Says

WASHINGTON --- Russian President Dmitriy Medvedevs threat today to deploy missiles targeting proposed U.S. missile defenses in Eastern Europe misses the point that the system will be purely defensive and will pose no threat to Russia, a Pentagon spokesman said today.>> These are interceptors, Bryan Whitman said of the system that will include 10 missile silos in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic. And they are designed to protect our European allies as well as the United States from an emerging ballistic missile threat from the Middle East.>> Medvedev made headlines during his annual address to the Federal Assembly today, announcing that Russia will deploy short-range missiles in the Baltic Sea region in response to plans to build the missile defense system.>> Russia also will develop jamming capabilities to counter the system, and cancel its plans to decommission a missile division in Kozelsk by 2010, Medvedev said.>> The Russian president said Russias conflict with Georgia in the Caucasus served as a pretext for the appearance of NATOs warships and then, for the accelerated enforcement of Americas missile defense systems on Europe.>> Whitman emphasized that the United States has gone out of its way to reassure the Russians that the proposed missile defense system is not a system that threatens them.>> We have offered any number of transparency arrangements [and] briefings to try to mitigate their concerns, and nothing in todays news changes our position with respect to trying to collaborate [and] cooperate with our European partners, he said.