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MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin threatened on Thursday to suspend Russia's compliance with a key European arms control treaty, accusing the United States and NATO of undermining regional stability with its plan to extend an American missile shield to central Europe.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice fired back by insisting Moscow should live up to its obligations under the treaty, which limits the number and locations of military aircraft, tanks and other non-nuclear heavy weapons around Europe. She called Russia's concerns "purely ludicrous" in a news conference at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Oslo, Norway.
But Putin's annual state-of-the-nation address made clear Russia is growing increasingly mistrustful of Western intentions.
"Our partners are behaving incorrectly, to say the...