MEDVEDEV ON COLLISION COURSE WITH US OVER MISSILES AND MUGABE SANCTIONSJuly 9, 2008The Times Online reports: “The Russian President Dmitri Medvedev warned the United States today that he would consider retaliatory ‘counter-measures’ if Washington went ahead with the construction of a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe.Briefing reporters after the G8 summit in Japan, the new Kremlin chief also appeared to back off from a previous pledge to support UN sanctions against Robert Mugabe's Government in Zimbabwe, saying that ‘no concrete decisions’ had yet been taken about how the United Nations should respond.The Russian Foreign Ministry had already reacted angrily to the missile deal signed yesterday by Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, on a visit to the Czech Republic, threatening to retaliate by ‘military-technical means’. The Czech Republic has agreed to host the radar system needed for the shield.Mr. Medvedev said today that the deal ‘offends us greatly’, adding: ‘Russia isn’t going to get hysterical but will be studying counter-measures.’Dr Rice is due to arrive in Georgia later today, amid a sharp escalation in US-Russian tensions over the future of that strategic former Soviet state. Washington and Moscow have accused each other of fanning tensions in Georgia after an upsurge of violence in Abkhazia, one of two regions that broke from Tbilisi after the collapse of the Soviet Union.Dr Rice was scheduled to attend a private dinner with Georgia’s US-backed President, Mikheil Saakashvili, this evening.Hours before her arrival, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement accusing Georgia of pushing the region towards war through actions openly supported by the United States. ‘Tbilisi’s actions represent a real threat to peace and security in the South Caucasus, capable of taking the region to the brink of a new armed conflict with unpredictable consequences,’ it said in a statement.Explicitly referring to the US State Department, the ministry said that those who ‘shield the provocateurs and blame everything on Moscow are doing a great disservice to the Georgian leadership and strengthening its sense of impunity’.Moscow argues that the missile defence shield would severely undermine the balance of European security and regards the proposed missile shield based in two former Communist countries as a hostile move. After 14 months of negotiations, the US has yet to clinch agreement with its other proposed partner — Poland — where it hopes to locate the interceptor missiles designed to shoot down any incoming rockets.Reacting to yesterday's Foreign Ministry statement, the Pentagon accused Moscow of trying to make Washington’s European allies nervous with its aggressive talk. ‘I can only assume Russia’s bellicose rhetoric is designed to make Europeans nervous about participating in this system, but that won’t work,’ said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary.Washington insists that the system, endorsed by NATO, will not be targeted at Russia but will act as a safeguard for Europe against regimes such as Iran…”