U.S.' Gates scoffs at Russian warnings to Poland

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pentagon chief Robert Gates dismissed as "empty rhetoric" on Sunday Russian warnings that Moscow would target Poland for a possible military strike because Warsaw agreed to host part of a U.S. missile shield.

"Russia is not going to launch nuclear missiles at anybody," Defense Secretary Gates said on ABC News' "This Week." "The Poles know that. We know it."

Col-General Anatoliy Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian general staff, told Interfax on Friday that Russian military doctrine would allow for a possible nuclear strike, after Warsaw agreed to deploy 10 interceptors at a site in Poland as part of the missile shield.

This was "strident rhetoric and probably fairly empty rhetoric," said Gates, a former CIA director and expert on Russia.

"I'm not quite sure why this deputy chief of staff felt compelled to make those kinds of threats," Gates said, adding that the threat was a throwback to the days of the old Soviet Union, when Moscow was Poland's overlord in the Warsaw Pact.

Poland is now a member of the NATO alliance.

Warsaw agreed on Thursday to host the 10 interceptors after Washington agreed to boost Poland's air defences. The Czech Republic agreed to host a radar for the shield, although both countries' parliaments must approve the agreements.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told "Fox News Sunday" she would go to Warsaw this week to sign the missile shield deal, after attending a NATO meeting in Belgium on Tuesday.