Russia's new map has arrived

Gates: Russia wary of growing Iranian threat
Forbes

WASHINGTON -- (AP)Prospects for a U.S.-Russian partnership on a missile defense system have improved slightly as Moscow grows increasingly concerned about Iran, Pentagon chief Robert Gates said Tuesday.

The defense secretary told senators that U.S. offers to put radar or data exchange centers in Russia are among the options being discussed.

Gates recounted a meeting he had with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during which the then-president "basically dismissed the idea that the Iranians would have a missile that would have the range to reach much of western Europe and much of Russia before 2020 or so."

"And he showed me a map that his intelligence guys had prepared," Gates told a Senate Appropriations panel. "I told him he needed a new intelligence service."

He did not say when the meeting occurred.

But Gates added: "The fact of the matter is, the Russians have come back to us and acknowledged that we were right in terms of the nearness of the Iranian missile threat, and that they had been wrong. And so my hope is we can build on that."