Russia Warns Military Action due to Missile Shield Deployment

Comments made by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday warn his country could resort to military action to prevent the United States and its NATO allies from deploying a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Russia has long opposed its deployment, considering it a threat.
"We will have to react somehow, to react, of course, in a military way," Mr. Medvedev was quoted as having said to the state-controlled RIA-Novosti news agency.
Mr. Medvedev's remarks were contradicted last week by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who said the standoff would only be handled diplomatically in a statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Tensions have ratcheted up between Russia and the West since its Aug. 8 invasion of Georgia. The invasion provided the impetus for the Aug. 20 conclusion of an agreement between Poland and the United States allowing the deployment of Patriot missiles on Polish soil by 2012.
Russian military leaders have engaged in a spate of saber rattling connected with the missile shield's deployment in recent weeks. On Aug. 15, Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, a deputy commander of the Russian Air Force, warned Poland was opening itself to "a nuclear strike" by signing the agreement.
Other recent reports in the Russian press have indicated plans exist to start arming Russian naval and air assets based in the Kaliningrad enclave, located between Lithuania and Poland, with nuclear weapons in response to the planned American deployment.
The Bulletin placed calls to the White House, State Department and the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and no comments were received as of press time.