Russia said on Monday (December 13) that it may be forced to deploy medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe in response to what it believes is the same NATO plan.
The warning from Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov increased the risk of a new armament buildup on the African continent, as tensions between the East and the West were the most serious since the end of the Cold War 30 years ago.
Ryabkov stated that if the West refuses to join its suspension of the use of intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) in Europe, Russia will be forced to take action-as part of the security package it seeks as a price to resolve the Ukrainian crisis.
Ryabukov told the Russian RIA news agency that the lack of progress in political and diplomatic solutions will lead Russia to respond with military means and military technology.
“In other words, this will be a confrontation, and this will be the next round,” he said, referring to the missiles that Russia may deploy.
According to a treaty between the then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan in 1987, Europe banned medium-range ranges from 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,400 miles). Nuclear weapons. A major easing of cold war tensions. By 1991, the two sides had destroyed nearly 2,700 aircraft.
Washington has been complaining about violations of ground-launched cruise missiles developed by Russia for many years. Moscow called it 9M729 and NATO called it a “screwdriver.” Washington withdrew from the agreement in 2019.
Gerhard Mangott, an expert on Russian foreign policy and arms control at NATO University, said that if NATO believes that Russia has deployed the system in the European part of the country, west of the Ural Mountains, it is correct. Cove’s threat is empty. Innsbruck, Austria.
But he said that if Russia’s denial is true, then Moscow’s warning is “the final signal to NATO that it should negotiate a freezing agreement with Russia.”
He added: “If NATO insists on not negotiating an agreement, then we will definitely see Russia deploying screwdriver missiles on its westernmost border.”
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Ryabukov has become one of Moscow’s main ambassadors in recent days because President Vladimir Putin (Vladimir Putin) urged the West to provide security while facing warnings from the United States and its allies not to invade Ukraine-this minister Denying Russia’s intentions again.
He repeated his comparison last week between current tensions and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, which brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war.
Ryabukov stated that there are “indirect signs” that NATO is approaching the redeployment of medium-range missiles, including the 56th Artillery Command that resumed the use of nuclear-capable Pershing missiles during the Cold War last month.
NATO stated that Europe will not have new US missiles and is prepared to deter new Russian missiles through a “cautious” response involving only conventional weapons.
But Ryabkov said that Russia has “complete lack of trust” in the alliance.
“They don’t allow themselves to do anything that can increase our safety in some way-they believe that they can act according to their needs, to their advantage, we just have to swallow it all and deal with it. This will not continue. “
