Neither move, however, represented ceding any significant ground. A plan to place Iskander missiles close to the Polish border was merely a threat. And while the Kremlin has previously criticized Tehran for questioning the reality of the Holocaust, Russian leaders have refused to back a Western push for tougher sanctions against Iran.

It still is not clear whether Moscow will make any significant concessions on Iran and other issues in response to President Obama's move to scrap the George W. Bush-era plan for a U.S. missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin told Echo of Moscow radio Saturday that Mr. Obama's move has made the deployment of Iskander short-range missiles in the Kaliningrad region unnecessary.

He described Mr. Obama's move as "victory of reason over ambitions."

"Naturally, we will cancel countermeasures which Russia has planned in response, one of which was the deployment of Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad region," Mr. Popovkin said.

Mr. Popovkin's statement was the most explicit declaration yet of Russia's intention to scrap the plan after Mr. Obama's decision, which was announced Thursday.

Mr. Popovkin later added, however, that the final decision on the subject can only be made by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Russian news agencies reported. Mr. Medvedev hasn't yet spoken on the issue.

Russia staunchly opposed the plan by the Bush administration to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a related radar in the Czech Republic, and said if the project went ahead it would respond by deploying the Iskander missiles in its westernmost Baltic Sea region.

Mr. Obama's decision to scrap the plan was based largely on a new U.S. intelligence assessment that Iran's effort to build a nuclear-capable long-range missile would take three to five years longer than originally thought, U.S. officials said. The new U.S. missile-defense plan would rely on a network of sensors and interceptor missiles based at sea, on land and in the air as a bulwark against Iranian short- and medium-range missiles.

Mr. Medvedev hailed Mr. Obama's decision as a "responsible move," but Russian officials have given no indication yet that Moscow would make concessions in other areas, including Iran. Washington is counting on Moscow, which has close commercial ties with Iran and is building its first nuclear power plant, to help raise pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.

On Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry harshly criticized Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his comments Friday in which he again questioned whether the Holocaust was a "real event."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko called the Iranian remarks "absolutely unacceptable" and insulting to the memory of the World War II victims.

"It won't help create a favorable international atmosphere for starting and conducting an efficient dialogue on issues regarding Iran," Mr. Nesterenko said.

Officials from the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany are to meet Iranian diplomats in Turkey on Oct. 1.