Russia will deploy Iskander missiles in its western outpost of Kaliningrad in response to plans by the United States to build an anti-missile system in Europe, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Medvedev said Russia would electronically jam elements of the proposed U.S. system and that Russia had scrapped plans to stand down three missile regiments.

"Earlier we had planned to decommission three missile regiments of a missile division deployed in Kozelsk and to disband this division by 2010. I have decided to refrain from these plans and we will not reform anything," Medvedev said.

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"Besides, to neutralise -- if necessary -- the anti-missile system, an Iskander missile system will be deployed in the Kaliningrad region. Naturally, we also consider using for the same purpose the resources of Russia`s navy," he said.

"In the end, electronic jamming of new elements of the U.S. missile shield will be carried out from the territory of the same westernmost region, that is from Kaliningrad," he said.

Parts of the U.S. system are due to be deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic. The Kremlin says the system threatens Russia`s security. Washington says it is needed to protect from what it calls rogue nations, specifically Iran.

Reuters via International Herald Tribune