Edit: A day after reporting the story, Associated Press scrubbed the article and headline, then added a whitewash story on the same original link. This post has been changed back to the original content and now leads to the Washington Post’s version of the same story.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia will counter NATO’s U.S.-led missile defense program by deploying new strike weapons capable of piercing the shield, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday.
Putin told defense officials that by developing defenses against ballistic missiles Washington aims to “neutralize” Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrent and gain a “decisive military superiority.”
He said that Moscow will respond by developing “strike systems capable of penetrating any missile defenses.”
“Over the past three years, companies of the military-industrial complex have created and successfully tested a number of prospective weapons systems that are capable of performing combat missions in a layered missile defense system. Such systems have already begun to enter the military this year. And now we are talking about development of new types of weapons,” Putin said.
…
Putin added that in the future Russia may also work on the development of its own missile defense systems, but will now focus primarily on commissioning new strike weapons.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia aims to spend less on its missile-defense system than the United States has done.
Full article: Russia to Deploy New Weapons to Counter US Missile Shield (Washington Post)
Global Geopolitics 