MOSCOW. Sept 17 (Interfax) - The Russian permanent envoy to NATO poured cold water on the United States' decision on Thursday to ditch its plan for a missile shield in Europe.

Dmitry Rogozin dismissed surmises that Washington's move was a concession to Russia and said "the Americans have simply put their own mistake right" and "chosen a more flexible system of the element of their strategic missile defense than what they've had until now."

"Of course, one can hear voices now in the West and here in Brussels, at NATO. One of the things that are being said is that it is such a great concession to Russia. But I wouldn't like us to rejoice too much and slip into some childish kind of euphoria. In actual fact, those are talking about a concession to Russia are primarily those who are looking for a bargaining chip in seeking extra dividends of some kind from us - look, you asked us not to deploy radar in the Czech Republic and anti-missiles in Poland and we've gone along with that, so it's your turn now. I want to say that bargaining is out of place in this case," Rogozin told Russian television channel Vesti.

"In actual fact, the Americans have simply put their own mistake right. And we are not duty-bound to pay for someone to put their own mistakes right," he said.

"In actual fact, it was not a simple decision to make because one should always read between lines," Rogozin said.

"The Americans have simply chosen a more flexible system of basing the element of their strategic missile defense than what they've had until now," he said.

"The ships on which the new elements of the strategic missile defense would be based might sail in one place today but in another place tomorrow," the envoy said. "And should there be any tension between Russia and, say, NATO or between Russia and the U.S., they might come to us, to our shores."

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