Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday became the first world leader to throw down a gauntlet to US president-elect Barack Obama, declaring that the Kremlin would station missiles in the tiny Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland, in response to US plans for an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe.

Mr Medvedev, speaking in his annual address to Russia’s Federal Assembly, also proposed extending the presidential term to six years from the current four, a step which had been proposed under former president, now prime minister Vladimir Putin, who had rejected it.