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MOSCOW-Russia could train its nuclear missiles on Ukraine if the pro-Western state joins NATO, President Vladimir Putin warned on Tuesday in a new attack on the alliance's expansion towards Russia's borders.But Moscow said Putin would go to a NATO summit in April, signaling a desire to heal rifts with the bloc on one of his last international engagements before leaving office a month later.Putin gave his missile warning just after a more reassuring step-he and Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko settled a gas debt row at talks in the Kremlin, minutes before a Moscow-imposed deadline on Kiev to pay up or face supply cuts.Speaking beside Yushchenko, Putin said Kiev's quest for alliance membership could lead to NATO bases on its soil, and Washington stationing elements of its missile defence shield there."I am not only terrified to utter this, it is scary even to think that Russia, in response to a possible deployment of the missile shield in Ukraine...,would have to target its offensive rocket systems at Ukraine," Putin said.He said it was Ukraine's sovereign right to decide whether to join NATO.But he added membership would "lead to real consequences: bases, the missile shield, which we believe has as its aim the neutralization of our nuclear missile capability, and which presents Russia with the need to take retaliatory measures".Ukraine's administration has applied to NATO for a Membership Action Plan, the first step on the path to accession. NATO members are expected to discuss the application, and one from ex-Soviet Georgia, at the Bucharest summit...To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah...
