Putin Warns U.S. Over Missile Shield

MOSCOW — President Putin of Russia warned yesterday that American plans to deploy part of a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe would provoke a new arms race.

"What negative things are going on in Europe that we have to stuff" new weapons into the continent? Mr. Putin asked at a news conference in Vienna in remarks broadcast on Russian state television. "What has happened that calls for all this? Nothing," he said, adding that deployment would spark a "new spiral of the arms race."

America is negotiating to base interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic, both former Soviet allies, to guard against long-range missile attacks from countries such as Iran.