Start of another Cold War?

This sounds like the beginning of the second phase of the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia. Putin is threatening to target the Ukraine with nukes if they move forward with allowing the U.S. to install an anti-missile defense system and if they continue to with their bid to join NATO....

From The Independent --

Russia has threatened to target the Ukraine with nuclear warheads if the former Soviet republic joins Nato and accepts the deployment of United States anti-missile defences on its territory.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia warned Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's leader, of "retaliatory actions'' should his country join the Western alliance.

"It's frightening not just to talk about this, but even to think about, that in response to such deployment, the possibility of such deployments -- and one can't theoretically exclude these deployments -- that Russia will have to point its warheads at Ukrainian territory,'' he said during a joint press conference in Moscow. The Russian and Ukrainian leaders had just held emergency talks in the Kremlin to avert a energy supply crisis over Kiev's gas bill -- a similar dispute two years ago led to power cuts across Europe. More....

Putin is concerned that if the U.S. anti-missile defense system is installed in Poland, Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe it will diminish the effectiveness and capabilities of Russia's missile and nuclear arsenal.

What Putin does not realize is - with the probability that terrorists will soon be in possession of some sort of nuclear weapon and an unstable Iran - the U.S. anti-missile defense system may very well save his vodka drinking ass one day!