Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday warned the West it would face a new Cold War if it failed to address Russia's concerns over a proposed missile defence shield for Europe.
Medvedev told reporters that the US decision to push ahead with construction of the missile defence system despite Russia's objections will force Moscow "to take retaliatory measures -- something that we would very much rather not do."
"We would then be talking about developing the offensive potential of our nuclear capabilities. This would be a very bad scenario."
The Russian leader also reaffirmed any earlier threat to pull out of the new START disarmament agreement that entered into force this year if the missile shield is deployed and operated without the Kremlin's input.
"This would be a very bad scenario. It would be a scenario that throws us back into the Cold War era."
