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Russia's Medvedev speaks on foreign policy in Washington

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Russia will respond to the U.S. missile defense plans for Europe if the U.S. steps are unacceptable for Moscow, President Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday.
WASHINGTON, November 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will respond to the U.S. missile defense plans for Europe if the U.S. steps are unacceptable for Moscow, President Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday.

"We would act only in response and only if the [U.S. missile defense] program continues in a variant unacceptable for us," Medvedev said after the G20 economic summit, while speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

Washington recently said it had provided new proposals to ease Russia's concerns over the planned deployment of 10 U.S. interceptor missiles in Poland and a tracking radar in the Czech Republic, which the George Bush administration has said are needed to counter possible attacks from "rogue" states such as Iran.

Russia, which says the missile defense system is a threat to its national security, has indicated it will not address the U.S. proposals until after president-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated as U.S. president in January.

Medvedev announced last week the possible deployment of Iskander-M short-range missile systems in the country's Kaliningrad exclave, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.

However, the Russian leader said in an interview with France's Figaro newspaper published on Thursday that, "We could reconsider this response if the new U.S. administration is ready to once again review and analyze all the consequences of its decisions to deploy the missiles and radar facilities."

Medvedev also told the council that Russia hopes relations with the U.S. will improve under Obama.

Medvedev proposed on Sunday creating a forum uniting European countries, international organizations and NATO to discuss possible threats to security.

Speaking about Russia's tense relations with Georgia, Medvedev told the council that his country is ready to deal with Georgia but not with the Mikheil Saakashvili regime.

"We are ready to build relations with Georgia but not with the current regime," the Russian leader said.

In early August, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia over South Ossetia after Georgian forces attacked the republic in an attempt to bring it back under central control. On August 26, Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the other Georgian breakaway republic, as independent states.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s amid armed conflicts that claimed thousands of lives.

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