Putin: NATO BMD 'aimed at Russia'

Russian PM and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin appeared on Russian TV yesterday and condemned US and NATO ballistic missile defence plans (See here for example). Reminding viewers that the United States is the only country ever to have used nuclear weapons in a war, he said that the Euro BMD system is:

undoubtedly aimed at neutralizing the nuclear rocket capability of Russia.

He added that NATO doesn't want partners, but vassals. This hard line on NATO-Russia has long been part of Putin's thinking. But he is correct to say that Russian attempts to make a genuine military partnership out of the BMD proposals, with a truly joint system between Russia and the Alliance, have been completely rebuffed by Brussels.