Maverick
February 13th, 2008, 05:20 PM
WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a Senate committee Wednesday that veiled threats from Russia toward Ukraine were "reprehensible" and "unacceptable."
Rice said the "reprehensible rhetoric that's coming out of Moscow is unacceptable," after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested Tuesday Moscow could aim missiles at Ukraine if it pursued plans to host NATO missile-defense facilities.
Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rice said such rhetoric "is not helpful to a relationship that has some positive aspects," citing US-Russian cooperation on Iran and North Korea as well as Middle East peace.
She regrettted that "when it comes to issues that come out of the structure of post Cold War Europe, we get this kind of rhetoric."
Speaking after talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko at the Kremlin, Putin said that joining NATO was Kiev's prerogative, although he warned it would "limit Ukraine's sovereignty."
"We don't have a right to and we will not interfere in" Ukraine's efforts to ensure its own security, Putin said.
However Putin warned that if Ukraine followed the lead of ex-Soviet-bloc countries in eastern Europe and hosted missile-defense facilities "to neutralize our nuclear potential" that Russia would be forced to respond.
"It is terrible even to think that in response to this ... Russia cannot theoretically exclude aiming our offensive-missile systems at Ukraine," Putin said.
Moscow sees the expansion of NATO, as well as the deployment of a US anti-missile shield in central Europe, as threats to Russian security.
Putin last year threatened to aim missiles at European cities if elements of the anti-missile shield were deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Rice said the "reprehensible rhetoric that's coming out of Moscow is unacceptable," after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested Tuesday Moscow could aim missiles at Ukraine if it pursued plans to host NATO missile-defense facilities.
Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rice said such rhetoric "is not helpful to a relationship that has some positive aspects," citing US-Russian cooperation on Iran and North Korea as well as Middle East peace.
She regrettted that "when it comes to issues that come out of the structure of post Cold War Europe, we get this kind of rhetoric."
Speaking after talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko at the Kremlin, Putin said that joining NATO was Kiev's prerogative, although he warned it would "limit Ukraine's sovereignty."
"We don't have a right to and we will not interfere in" Ukraine's efforts to ensure its own security, Putin said.
However Putin warned that if Ukraine followed the lead of ex-Soviet-bloc countries in eastern Europe and hosted missile-defense facilities "to neutralize our nuclear potential" that Russia would be forced to respond.
"It is terrible even to think that in response to this ... Russia cannot theoretically exclude aiming our offensive-missile systems at Ukraine," Putin said.
Moscow sees the expansion of NATO, as well as the deployment of a US anti-missile shield in central Europe, as threats to Russian security.
Putin last year threatened to aim missiles at European cities if elements of the anti-missile shield were deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic.