Russian President
Vladimir Putin, bitterly opposed to a U.S. missile shield in Europe, told
President Bush on Thursday that Moscow would drop its objections if the radar-based system were installed in Azerbaijan.
Putin told Bush he would not seek to retarget Russian missiles on Europe if the United States agreed to put the system in the central Asian nation of Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic.
It will be interesting to see what Bush does here.
If the goal is actually to protect Europe from Middle Eastern (Iran), then Azerbaijan seem like a good location. But doing so would mean putting the system on a base that Russia could shut down any time they wanted to.
Jay