Russia Threatens Poles, Czechs With Missiles

MOSCOW — Russia threatened to train its missiles on Poland and the Czech Republic yesterday after the two countries signaled they would host an American missile defense shield despite vehement objections from the Kremlin.

The warning came hours after the Czech Republic's Prime Minister Topolanek and Poland's Prime Minister Kaczynski told a press conference in Warsaw that their response to the American proposal, made last month, would "most likely be positive."

The Pentagon has asked to deploy 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic — two former Warsaw Pact countries that are now EU and NATO members — as part of the first global integrated missile defense shield in Europe.

Yesterday, the commander of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, General Nikolai Solovtsov, warned that the proposed locations of the defensive shield would be targeted if Poland and the Czech Republic accepted the proposal.

He also repeated a threat to pull out of a Cold War treaty restricting the production of intermediate range missiles capable of striking Europe.