The United States has expressed its concerns to Russia over plans to move nuclear-capable missiles close to the border of neighboring European countries, the State Department said Monday. "We've urged Russia to take no steps to destabilize the region," deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said, adding that Washington also had told Moscow of its neighbors' concerns on the plans to deploy Iskander-M missiles in the Kaliningrad area. Poland and three Baltic countries on Monday expressed alarm that the missiles would be close to their borders. "We certainly know the countries in the neighborhood have expressed concerns over it, and we'll keep talking to [the Russians] about it," Harf told reporters. The Russian deployment comes in response to the planned U.S.-led construction of a missile-defense shield, which Washington long has argued is not aimed at Moscow. The advanced version of the Russian missile has a range of 500 kilometers and could potentially be used against ground-based radar and interceptors of the new NATO missile-defense system.
