WIESBADEN, Germany (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin, due in Germany on Sunday for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel, will raise the growing tensions between Moscow and Washington that risk embroiling Europe.
A spokesman for the Kremlin on Sunday confirmed that Putin would raise "questions of strategic stability within the context of the US missile shield project" with the chancellor.
Their meeting comes two days after top US and Russian officials failed to resolve the dispute over the Pentagon's plans to erect part of a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe, a move Moscow considers an act of agression.
In rancorous bilateral talks on Friday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected a Russian call to freeze plans to place 10 US interceptor missiles in Poland and a targeting radar in the Czech Republic by 2010.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded with an ominous warning that the country would "take measures to neutralise that threat" if Washington were to override its concerns.
Washington insists the missile shield is a response to the potential danger posed by nations like Iran, but Moscow fears it would fence in its own military capabilities.
Putin is now threatening to tear up a handful of Cold War-era accords, including the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty which sets limits on troops, tanks and other military hardware across the continent.
Merkel does not want Europe to be split by the defence row and has insisted that NATO should be consulted about the US plans for the missile shield.
She has advised the Czechs and Poland, relative newcomers to the transatlantic alliance -- they joined in 1999 -- not to act on their own.
The Kremlin spokesman said Putin would also discuss nuclear non-proliferation in his meeting with Merkel, and would touch on Iran in this regard.
Their talks in Wiesbaden on the banks of the Rhine will stretch over two days, with each bringing along several ministers.
Putin and Merkel were due to have dinner in the hamlet of Hattenheim am Rheingau outside Wiesbaden after the Russian leader lands in nearby Frankfurt at 7:00 pm (1700 GMT).
Their formal talks will take place on Monday, after they had taken turns to address the annual St Petersburg Dialogue, a civil society forum set up by Putin and former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
The issue of the Serbian province of Kosovo would also be on the agenda.
Pristina has threatened to declare independence unilaterally unless a solution is found through the international community in time to meet a December 10 deadline.
Washington has signalled it will accept such a step by Kosovo, but the European Union's 27 member states are divided on whether they should do so.
On Sunday, the EU's Kosovo envoy urged Belgrade and Pristina to accelerate their talks to find a solution as the December deadline nears.
Reaching international consensus seems a distant prospect as Russia remains fiercely loyal on the issue to its ally Serbia, which sees Kosovo as the cradle of its culture.
Russia has backed Serbia at the UN Security Council by threatening to veto any move to give Kosovo "supervised independence", as recommended by a UN envoy.
Moscow insists this would send the "wrong signal" to separatist regions elsewhere in the world, primarily Russia's own southern regions.
Putin also shows no sign of falling into line with the opinion of the leading nations in the West on how to deal with Tehran's defiance on meeting international demands to halt sensitive nuclear work.
After meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Moscow on Wednesday, he signalled that he still disagrees with Western accusations that Iran is using a civilian nuclear programme as a cover for making atomic weapons.
Alexander Rahr, a researcher at the German Council on Foreign Relations, said he also expected Merkel to raise the issue of freedom of speech in Russia.
Merkel and Putin briefly clashed on the issue during her visit to Russia in May, prompting the Russian president to say that demonstrators "were also arrested in Germany".
US Secretary of State Rice on Saturday criticised the extent of Putin's grip on power as she met with Russian human rights activists.
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