Interview with Simon Tisdal

Simon Tisdal, a columnist from the Guardian newspaper, told Russia Today how the new initiative put forward by President Putin on Thursday at the G8 summit might influence the international situation.

Russia Today: We have heard loads about the row over the U.S missile shield in Europe. How significant is Vladimir Putin's intervention?

Simon Tisdal: Vladimir Putin has taken Americans by surprise today. There was tremendous sort of drums beating ahead of the summit. Everyone expected a showdown but in fact the opposite seems to happen. What Mr Putin has suggested is raising a number of further questions. One of them is how Iran will react to having potentially an American missile base rise on its doorstep, not far from its north-west border and not far from Tehran. There is also a question what the Poles and Czechs will be thinking about