Putin compares missile shield bid to Cuban crisis

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has compared the US proposal to build a missile defence shield in eastern Europe to the Cuban missile crisis of the 1960s.

“Analogous actions by the Soviet Union, when it deployed missiles in Cuba, prompted the Caribbean crisis,” Mr Putin said at the end of a European Union-Russian summit in Portugal, using the Russian term for the Cuban missile crisis.

“Such a threat is being set up on our borders,” he said.

At the same time, Mr Putin suggested the tension was much lower than during the Cuban crisis because Russian-US relations had moved on since the Cold War.

He also said he believed the US was listening to Moscow’s concerns about its missile plans. Mr Putin said his relationship with US President George W Bush helped iron out problems in relations with the US, calling him a friend.

Turning to his future in Russian politics, Mr Putin said he would not assume presidential powers if he became prime minister after finishing his term in the spring.

“If someone thinks that I intend to move, let’s say, into the government of the Russian Federation and transfer the fundamental powers there, that’s not the case,” he told media.