Vladimir Putin told a British newspaper U.S. plans to put a missile defense system in eastern Europe could trigger a nuclear war.

“It is obvious that if part of the strategic nuclear potential of the U.S. is located in Europe and will be threatening us, we will have to respond,” Putin told The Times of London.

“This system of missile defense on one side and the absence of this system on the other … increases the possibility of unleashing a nuclear conflict.” U.S. officials have said the anti-missile system is aimed at Iran, not Russia.

“There are no such missiles - Iran does not have missiles with the range,” Putin told the Times. The United States insists the defense system is “for the protection from something that does not exist. Is it not sort of funny? It would be funny if it were not so sad,” he said.

Putin also called a British extradition request for Moscow businessman Andrei Lugovoy, charged with the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko “stupid, stupid nonsense” and “only a political public relations step.”

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