Mr Putin said it was a "response to maintain the strategic balance in the world", in what he called a "new round of the arms race".
He added that Russia would continue to improve its resources.
Russia tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile, which can be armed with up to 10 warheads, on Tuesday.
"Our American partners have left the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty," Mr Putin told a press conference.
"We have warned them then that we will come out with a response to maintain the strategic balance in the world."
'New weapons'
Mr Putin defended Russia's actions, insisting they were not the "initiators of this new round of the arms race".
"(Our partners) are stuffing Eastern Europe with new weapons," he said.
"A new base in Bulgaria, another in Romania, a site in Poland, radar in the Czech Republic. What are we supposed to do? We cannot just observe all this."
He added: "These actions by Russia should not be feared, they are not aggressive, it's just an answer to rather tough and unjustified unilateral actions by partners."
Washington wants to deploy interceptor rockets in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic to counter what it describes as a potential threat from "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea.
The US maintains its system is not directed at the Russians, but Moscow says its security is being threatened.
Russia's test launch took place at the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia on 29 May.
The missile, called RS-24, was designed to evade missile defence systems, the Russian defence ministry says.
The test missile successfully struck its target 5,500km (3,400 miles) away on the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces said.
(Originally on BBC website click here for article)
2 comments:
First off: It was a massive diplomatic fuck up to make plans to place these anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe without consulting our European allies first...
Not to mention the Russians. :P
But, that said... I can't help but feel inclined to tell Putin and his "Stalin is the Cat's Pajamas!" fanclub to suck it. Now that Russia's economy is on the up (well, for those in bed with the government, and/or organized crime lords), Putin seems more and more willing to start rolling back Russia's warmed relations with the west, and give us the finger along the way.... when he's not having whistle blowers poisoned and members of the press "disappeared", anyway.
When Putin first came to power, I sorta liked him. But now, he scares me to death. He fosters a government without accountability or a moral center, and if things keep going as they are, we'll have another cold war on our hands. (Yay! Because this "War on Terror" is starting to lose its zazz)
BUT: The rational side of me that doesn't want to go provoking every other nation on the planet says that we'd better come to some kind of amiable arrangement, and soon. The last thing we want is for Russia to give us ANOTHER finger, and start selling new weapons to our enemies in response.
Oh wait, they already are.
...and BTW, the idea of an AMS evading ballistic missile is most likely horseshit. ICBMs travel at speeds approaching Mach 10. Do you know what you can dodge or evade at Mach 10? Nothing... because making a turn of only a few degrees takes a few hundred miles of travel to accomplish.
And MIRVs are nothing new, and nothing we haven't been thinking about for the past 30 years. Let's not forget that the Russians don't have an AMS to speak of... so, if you don't have the technology to intercept ballistic missiles, how do you develop technology to evade such systems? Much less accurately TEST it?
"...[H]e scares me to death. He fosters a government without accountability or a moral center, and if things keep going as they are, we'll have another cold war on our hands."
Funny, this exactly describes our own regime. Plus the oligarchy/business in bed with the government, the punishment of whistle blowers, and rollback of democratic norms.
Anyway, the whole debate is retarded, and I am not sure what either side has to gain tangibly. As John points out, the technology isn't there, just like there was never going to be any Star Wars. But the Soviets bought that gag, and bankrupted their economy to trying to catch up to us.
I guess when you dissect it thoroughly, though, it is sort of a return to the Cold War. We are sending a strong signal that Europe is ours (not sure that Europe is thrilled with that) and Russia is responding by saying "F-U jerks!"
Wow, wonder how we'll feel when they cut off oil to Europe and us and start selling it to the Chinese. Then we'll have showed them whose boss. Good thing we can always rely on our friend Hugo in Venezuela...or maybe our good friends in the Middle East...or maybe we'll just get over our massive dependence on petroleum and switch to alternative energy sources like wind and solar.
Oh man, we are so screwed!
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