UPDATE 1-Russian general derides, warns US on missile shield

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By Dmitry Solovyov

MOSCOW, June 21 (Reuters) - Russia's top general on Thursday ridiculed U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Europe as unworkable and warned Washington that Moscow could react with military force if it felt threatened.

Moscow has reacted angrily to the proposed U.S. missile defence system, parts of which would be located in Poland and the Czech Republic. Despite U.S. assurances, Moscow has said it sees the missile system as a threat.

The chief of Russia's general staff, General Yuri Baluyevsky said that since 1945 the U.S. had made little progress on anti-ballistic missile defence and some of its much-touted anti-missile systems were "raw or even untested".

"The one who still believes today that he will be able to intercept 'a few Soviet rockets', makes a serious mistake," he told a news conference. "But let's not drive such scenarios to practical implementation of this utter madness."

Washington says the shield is designed to intercept missiles from rogue states such as Iran, not to counter any Russian military threat.

Baluyevsky said that if the U.S. gave no positive response to President Vladimir Putin's proposal to locate part of the shield in Azerbaijan instead of eastern Europe, it would mean the actual target of its missiles was Russia.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak echoed Baluyevsky: "This radar will not be able to monitor anything except Russian bases," he told the news conference.

Asked what steps Russia could take if it felt threatened, Baluyevsky said: "If we feel a threat to Russia's national interests, it will be minimised ... including by military means."

He said Russia's newest short-range Iskander-M missile system could be used to stave off such a threat.

Baluyevsky said he expected Washington would turn down Putin's offer to change the sites used for the missile shield.

"In my view ... the question of placing elements of the missile defence system in Europe has already been decided by Washington," he said.

Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush are expected to discuss the issue early next month at a meeting in Maine in the United States.

Baluyevsky showed journalists video slides with various U.S. rocket systems and even a U.S. documentary publicising missile shield plans.

Another slide depicted a Cold War-era scenario of a pre-emptive U.S. nuclear missile strike on the Soviet Union, derived from a Western-printed fiction of the 1980s.

"End of Day One. The Soviet leadership which survived the attack surrenders," the slide read. It said the Soviets launched several nuclear rockets in retaliation but those were shot down.