[attach id=261288 size="medium"]Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Reuters[/attach]

Russia voiced concern yesterday about US missile defences and high-precision conventional weapons, signalling that nuclear arms cuts proposed by President Barack Obama are likely to faceformidable obstacles.

In a speech in Berlin, Obama said he wanted to reduce the strategic nuclear weapons the United States deploys by a third and would seek to negotiate cuts with Russia. The former Cold War foes possess the vast majority of the world’s nuclear weapons.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated Moscow’s concerns about the anti-missile shields the US and Nato are deploying, and said the development of high-precision non-nuclear weapons could upset the strategic balance.

“These weapons are approaching the level of strategic nuclear arms in terms of their strike capability. States possessing such weapons strongly increase their offensive potential,” Putin said at a meeting on defence issues in the Russian city of St Petersburg.

Putin said Russia welcomed a US decision to scale down the missile defence system it is deploying with Nato in Europe, but he emphasised that “nobody is dumping this programme” and that Russia – which says it fears interceptors could shoot down its nuclear missiles, weakening its defences – remained concerned.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, spoke in starker terms.

“How can we take the idea of strategic nuclear weapons reductions seriously when the United States is building up its ability to intercept these strategic nuclear weapons?” he said.