MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin on Friday renewed criticism of U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Eastern Europe, saying Russia would take ‘appropriate measures’ to counter the system. Putin told Czech President Vaclav Klaus at a Kremlin meeting that the proposed missile shield would be used to track Russian military activities. ‘These systems will monitor Russian territory as far as the Ural mountains if we don’t come out with a response,’ Putin told Klaus. ‘And we will indeed do this. Anyone would.’ ‘We will not get hysterical about this. We will just take appropriate measures,’ he said, without elaborating. Russia views the U.S. plan to base 10 missile interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic from 2012 as a major threat to its national security. Washington says the system is needed to defend Europe and U.S. forces there against what it calls ‘rogue states’ such as Iran and North Korea. But top Russian politicians say the U.S. plan could disrupt European stability and fuel a new Cold War-style arms race. Moscow’s top brass say the missile shield does not pose any immediate military threat for Russia, but warn that Russia […]