Putin: ‘We will have to have new targets’

Blair expresses ‘concerns’
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Russia’s warning that it could aim its missiles at Europe is worrying, but the bloc will not hesitate in expressing its displeasure.

“Europe as a whole ... does have concerns about Russian behavior and will not be shy about expressing those concerns,” he said on condition of anonymity, in line with government policy.

“What we want is a constructive relationship, but what the nature of that relationship is as much up to Russia as it is to us.”

Relations between Moscow and Washington have soured in the past year. The two former Cold War foes are at odds over Washington’s missile plans, over Russia’s conflicts with former Soviet nations — including Ukraine, Georgia and Estonia — and over U.S. concerns of democratic backsliding in Russia. The White House has made no comment on Putin’s new warning.

Blistering assessment
Putin gave a stinging critique of the U.S. and European powers.

“We look at what has been created in North America — horror, torture, homelessness, Guantanamo, detention without courts or investigation,” Putin said.

Putin, who is nine months from the end of his second and final four-year term in office, also said Russia’s presidents should serve longer terms. Immensely popular with voters — he was re-elected in 1994 with more than 71 percent of the vote — Putin has consistently rejected changing the law to allow him a third consecutive term.

But his comments to reporters from G-8 nations seemed certain to feed speculation that he would seek to stay in power beyond the spring of 2008.

“Four years is a fairly short time,” Putin said according to the transcript. “It seems to me that in today’s Russia five, six or seven years would be acceptable, but the number of terms still should be limited.”

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