Russian general calls US expansion top national security threat

A top Russian general called US plans to post missile defence systems in former Soviet bloc countries a top national security threat, the latest signal of a growing chill in US-Russian relations.

Gen Yuri Baluyevsky, head of the Russian military’s General Staff, said that Russia now faces even greater military threats than during the Cold War, and the nation needs a new military doctrine to respond to these challenges, according to speech posted on the Defence Ministry’s website today.