"Russia had always been paranoid about this, but George Bush was right, this wasn't a threat to them," Obama said in an interview on CBS show "Face the Nation" days before he is set to meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the United Nations.

"This program will not be a threat to them. So my task here was not to negotiate with the Russians," Obama said, responding to claims by some domestic critics that his move amounted to appeasement of confrontational Russian policies.

"The Russians don't make determinations about what our defense posture is. We have made a decision about what will be best to protect the American people as well as our troops in Europe and our allies," Obama said.

"If the by-product of it is that the Russians feel a little less paranoid and are now willing to work more effectively with us to deal with threats like ballistic missiles from Iran or nuclear development in Iran, you know, then that's a bonus."

Obama last week announced that he would shelve plans to site parts of a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, and instead deploy more mobile equipment targeting Iran's short and medium-range missiles.

The White House has denied it orchestrated a quid pro quo with Moscow by agreeing to halt work on the missile shield in a bid to win more cooperation on issues like Iran's nuclear program.

But foreign policy experts are closely watching to see whether Moscow offers any concessions following the US decision, as both sides seek to "reset" a relationship plagued by Cold War-style rhetoric in recent years.

Russia has broadly welcomed the US move.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday praised Obama's action as "brave" but called for more US measures to lift Soviet-era restrictions on the export of high technology to Russia and to help its World Trade Organization membership bid.

Obama and Medvedev will meet on Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, with the Iranian nuclear showdown and joint efforts to agree cuts in strategic nuclear weapons also on the agenda.

The US president's decision on the missile shield means that Washington will not now deploy an anti-missile radar in the Czech Republic or missile interceptors in Poland.

Obama reasoned that a slower than expected development path by Iran on long-range missiles meant that the prime threat to the United States and its allies now came from short and medium-range weapons.

Initially, the new system will see the US military deploy interceptors on ships then seek to deploy land-based technology in Europe from 2015.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday that the previous system would not have been operational until at least 2017 at the earliest and insisted the shift provided "greater flexibility to adapt as new threats develop and old ones recede."

"We are strengthening -- not scrapping -- missile defense in Europe," he wrote in an opinion column in the New York Times.

earlier related report
No 'tradeoff' on US missile plan, says Medvedev ahead of US trip
When President Dmitry Medvedev travels to New York this week to address the United Nations and meet Barack Obama who has just scrapped a missile shield plan, the question on everyone's mind will be: how will Russia reciprocate?

While Russians welcomed the move, saying it will help foster dialogue, they have so far refused to say that direct reciprocal steps would be forthcoming. Medvedev acknowledged however the Kremlin understands the ball may now be in Russia's court.

"Of course, there is always score counting in politics," Medvedev said in an interview released late Friday. "Primitive compromises and tradeoffs" were out of the question, however, he said.

"If our partners heed some of our concerns then we will of course treat their concerns with more attention," Medvedev said in the interview to the Swiss media.

Privately, officials concede the US decision to shelve a Bush-era Eastern European missile defense plan was not only a boon but a challenge for Russia. "Naturally ... we understand that we now may be in a more responsible and difficult position," a Kremlin official said.

"Indeed we have to respond," he said.

How that will be translated into concrete moves this week when Medvedev addresses a Security Council meeting considering a key resolution on nuclear disarmament and meet Obama remains unclear.

A report in Kommersant daily Friday, citing a senior unnamed diplomat, said Washington expected Russia to stop supplies of its S-300 air-defense missiles to Iran and support tougher sanctions against the wayward state.

Russian officials who have ruled out a quid-pro-quo approach in its ties with Washington, flatly refused to link Washington's decision on the US missile plan to possible Russian concessions on Iran.

"It would not be right to think of any responsible movement, collective movement towards more secure and predictable world ... in terms of concessions," said Medvedev's foreign policy advisor Sergei Prikhodko.

Meeting with foreign journalists, he sought to downplay expectations of what Russia will bring to the table.

Washington's missile decision was a "serious contribution" to the upcoming meetings of the United Nations General Assembly and a Security Council session on nuclear non-proliferation, both of which Medvedev will address, he said.

When the Security Council sits down to consider a key resolution on nuclear weapons on September 24, it should not "antagonise the countries ... and create additional irritants in relations between nuclear and non-nuclear states," Prikhodko said.

He also said it would be unreasonable to expect a quick agreement on the START nuclear arms control treaty or any other deals when Medvedev and Obama meet face to face. "Contradictions remain," Prikhodko added.

Medvedev and Obama pledged to resuscitate bilateral ties and during their Moscow summit in July issued a declaration on replacing the expiring START treaty, preferably by December.

Russian analysts say Obama's decision to ditch the Bush-era missile plan could make Russia more accepting of the US position on issues such as Iran.

"Tougher sanctions? Yes. The question is: how tougher," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of magazine Russia in Global Affairs.

"But if someone's waiting for revolutionary changes, they won't happen," he said.

Obama announced that he had decided to replace the shield with a more mobile system using mainly sea-based interceptors to target any attack with short and medium-range missiles.

Still, Washington's move didn't guarantee Russia would not have the same security concerns over the new missile plan in the future, Lukyanov said, noting Russia wanted Washington to commit to Medvedev's proposal on a new European security pact and collective security measures.

For now, Moscow has announced it would freeze its move to put Iskander short-range missiles in its Kaliningrad territory wedged between Poland and Lithuania, a threat analysts said Russia would never follow through upon in the first place.

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