Putin warns U.S. about NATO missile shield in Europe

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that NATO's missile-defense shield in Romania and Poland is threatening peace in Europe and said a new arms race may emerge between his country and its Cold War foe.

Poland broke ground on the northern wing of the anti-ballistic missile shield Friday, one day after Romania inaugurated rocket batteries to the south. The two complexes have sparked tension between the alliance and Russia in the deepest confrontation since the collapse of Communism after the Kremlin annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

'After the placement of these missile defense elements, we have to think how to neutralize the threats for the security of the Russian Federation,” Putin said.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is consolidating its presence in eastern Europe after Russia forcibly changed borders in the region and because it continues to intimidate its neighbors, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Romania on Thursday. Putin said NATO's missile defense bases and increased troop presence were 'extra steps” toward a 'shakeup of the international security system” and 'a news arms race” in which he said Russia wouldn't take part.

'We won't be drawn into this race, we'll go our own way,” Putin said. 'We'll do everything necessary from our side to ensure and preserve the strategic balance of forces that is the most reliable guarantee to prevent starting large-scale military conflicts.”

Poland started building an installation at the former military airport in Redzikowo near the Baltic coast Friday. A counterpart to the base in the southern Romanian village of Deveselu, the site will be able to host about 300 U.S. troops in 2018. That follows ramped-up defense spending among Baltic NATO members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which plan to seek further increases in NATO troop rotations.

NATO's members have stressed the shield is solely a defense against potential attacks from so-called 'rogue states,” particularly Iran.

NATO isn't looking to start a new Cold War, Stoltenberg said. He added that the Aegis rockets, defensive weapons that can't carry warheads and are designed to collide with and destroy ballistic missiles outside of the atmosphere, technically aren't able to shoot down long-range missiles from Russia. Poland and Romania joined NATO along with other eastern European states a decade after the collapse of their communist-era overlord, the Soviet Union.