Vladimir Putin: Russia will respond to US anti-missile system deployments

Russian President Vladimir Putin is back in his home town for the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.

Today he met on the sidelines of the conference to address international reporters on recent events.

When asked if he is worried about the deployment of large scale American anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe, Middle East and South East Asia, Putin said,

“This issue is a major concern for us and we have been constantly voicing it for decades. This disrupts the strategic balance in the world…But the world is silent and nobody listens to us”.

Putin remarked that while the initial deployment of many of these systems by the US was done under the guise of  the alleged ‘threat’ from Iran, the deployments have only increased since the Iran Nuclear Deal.

Vladimir Putin further stated that even if North Korea were to reach a similar deal with the US, the anti-missile systems would still remain. He described the situation in the following way,

“It’s not about North Korea. If tomorrow North Korea declares it is stopping nuclear tests and cancelling its rocket program, the US will continue building its ABM system under some new pretext or without one at all”.

Putin continued,

“They (the US) have elements in their ABM system in Alaska and now in South Korea. Do we have to look at this helplessly and do the same in Eastern Europe? Of course not. We contemplate our response to this challenge”.

If anyone doesn’t think Putin has a crucial point, just look at this map of how close Russian built its country around these US/NATO bases