missile defence shield

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has issued a strong defence of Iran against the threat of force or new sanctions imposed by the West.

 
President Obama has announced the scrapping of the controversial European Missile Defence Shield. Following a "re-assessment" of Iran's nuclear capability, the shield is no longer deemed necessary. Russia, said the President, has posed no threat, and was not the real reason behind the programmes conception. Defence Secretary Robert Gates speculated that in the future, sanctions may be a more realistic means of influencing Iran.
 

Yesterday, 3rd August,  President Medvedev signed an executive order appointing Lieutenant General Andrei Shvaichenko to the position of commander of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces and releasing him from his previous duties as chief of staff and first deputy commander of the Strategic Missile Forces.
The same executive order released Colonel General Nikolai Solovtsov from the post of commander of the Strategic Missile Forces and retired him from military service.