By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Moscow warned Thursday that it does not rule out new deployments of nuclear missiles in response to the planned U.S. stationing of long-range conventional weapons in Germany, just days after state-run television made similar threats.
In comments monitored by Worthy News, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday that the defense of Russia’s Kaliningrad region, wedged between NATO military alliance members Poland and Lithuania, was a particular focus for stationing nuclear-capable missiles.
“I am not ruling out any options,” he told Russian media when asked to comment on the U.S. deployment plans.
The United States announced last week that it would start deploying weapons in Germany in 2026, including SM-6, Tomahawk, and new hypersonic missiles, to demonstrate its commitment to NATO and European defense.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that Moscow would resume producing short and intermediate-range land-based missiles and decide where to place them if needed.
Most of Russia’s missile systems are capable of being fitted with either conventional or nuclear warheads.
“Kaliningrad is no exception in terms of our 100 percent determination to do everything necessary to push back those who may harbor aggressive plans and who try to provoke us to take certain steps that are undesirable for anyone and are fraught with further complications,” Ryabkov said.
RUSSIA, US MISSILES
The missiles that Russia and the United States are contemplating deploying are intermediate-range ground-based weapons that were banned under a 1987 U.S.-Soviet treaty. The U.S. quit the treaty in 2019, accusing Russia of violations that Moscow denied.
Moscow’s latest threats came less than a week after Worthy News noticed that the Kremlin’s vital mouthpiece tested America’s attention span by threatening to strike the European capitals of U.S. allies shortly after ex-President Donald J. Trump survived an assassination attempt.
With much of the United States focused on its internal security services following the first shooting of a presidential candidate in decades, Russia’s state-run Rossiya 1 TV channel showed off Moscow’s nuclear capabilities late Sunday.
“Almost all European capitals will be under threat if our missiles are stationed in Kaliningrad: Berlin, Warsaw, all the Baltic states, Paris, Bucharest, Prague, and of course, the American bases in Germany,” TV host and State Duma lawmaker Yevgeny Popov said in remarks analyzed by Worthy News on Monday.
“Special attention to Britain, our traditional enemy,” the TV host warned. “Britain is in the most vulnerable position. In principle, three missiles are enough to end this civilization.”
The statement, believed to have been coordinated with Moscow, was expected to increase pressure on the physically and cognitively declining U.S. President Joe Biden to step aside in upcoming elections.
Security experts say the planned deployments are part of the worst arms race since the Cold War of the Soviet era.
SENDING POWERFUL SIGNAL
A Russian deployment of nuclear missiles in Kaliningrad would send a powerful signal to the West because of its direct proximity to NATO countries, analysts say.
And Andrey Baklitskiy, an arms control expert with the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, said Russia might also deploy missiles in its Moscow or Leningrad regions or Chukotka in the far east, from where they could target Alaska or even California.
These missile launchers in Kaliningrad would probably be visible “at every second” to NATO intelligence and surveillance, so such a deployment would amount to “posturing,” he argued.
Yet, with tensions already high over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Donald J. Trump has his work cut out for him if re-elected as president of the United States.
Speaking at the Republican National Convention, Trump said the war would never have happened under his watch and that he plans to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War Two.
Hundreds of thousands of people, many of them soldiers, are believed to have been killed or injured, and millions have been displaced since the full-scale war broke out in February 2022.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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