Nuclear missiles along NATO border ?

[humble3d]

Nuclear missiles along NATO border ?

 

 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is likely to deploy advanced nuclear-capable missiles in its European exclave of Kaliningrad by 2019, casting the move as a reply to a U.S.-backed missile shield, and may one day put them in Crimea too, sources close to its military predict.

That would fuel what is already the worst standoff between Russia and the West since the Cold War and put a swathe of territory in NATO members Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in the cross-hairs.

Russia would probably have deployed the missile -- called the Iskander, the Persian name for Alexander the Great -- in Kaliningrad regardless, and the targets it will cover can be struck by longer-range Russian missiles anyway.

But Russian and Western experts say the U.S.-backed shield, which Moscow says is aimed at blunting its own nuclear capabilities, gives the Kremlin the political cover it needs to justify something it was planning all along.

"The Russians plan to do a lot of things they have had in train for some time," said Steven Pifer, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

"There's a long history in Moscow of saying what they're doing is in response to what you guys did, even though they planned it in advance."

NATO is holding a summit in Warsaw next month to decide how best to deter Russia after Moscow's lightning annexation of Ukraine's Crimea in 2014. The United States, Britain and Germany have said they will command new battalions in Poland and the Baltics to send Moscow a message.

The summit may prompt Russia to announce counter-measures, but sources close to the Russian military believe Moscow will wait until a planned Polish missile defense site opens in late 2018 to unveil a more serious response.

The Kremlin has often threatened to put nuclear-capable Iskander-M missiles in Kaliningrad, a slice of Russia wedged between Poland and Lithuania, as a riposte to the shield, part of which went online in Romania last month.

But it has kept the West guessing about its real intentions.

'INEVITABLE' DEPLOYMENT

Mikhail Barabanov, a senior research fellow at the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), which advises the Russian Defence Ministry, said it now looked like the Kremlin would deploy them there permanently by 2019.

"By all accounts, the deployment of the Iskanders in Kaliningrad Region is now inevitable," Barabanov told Reuters, saying the missile brigade currently stationed there was using older shorter-range Tochka-U missiles slated for replacement.

The Iskander, a mobile ballistic missile system codenamed SS-26 Stone by NATO, replaced the Soviet Scud missile. Its two guided missiles have a range of up to 500 kilometers (about 300 miles) and can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads.

Russia has twice deployed Iskanders to Kaliningrad on exercises only to reportedly later withdraw them.

U.S. military officials say the U.S.-backed shield which Russia objects to is not aimed at countering a possible Russian threat, but at shooting down missiles from what it describes as rogue states like Iran. Russia says it simply doesn't believe that explanation.

After the United States switched on the Romanian part of the shield, President Vladimir Putin warned Romania and Poland could find themselves targeted by Russian missiles.

"There's a very high chance Iskanders will be deployed in Kaliningrad," Ivan Konovalov, director of the Center for Strategic Trend Studies in Moscow, told Reuters.

"But the Iskanders are our ace card in the standoff over missile defense and NATO's activity around our borders. We need to use it cleverly. There's a big game going on and we don't want to throw it away at the start. We'll play it when Russia needs it most politically."

A marked reduction in East-West tensions might prompt Russia to think twice about the deployment, he said.

Pifer, the former U.S. ambassador, said it was "a matter of time" before the Iskanders showed up in Kaliningrad regardless.

"Kaliningrad is worrisome," he said. "If you have that range of missile there you cover not only all the Baltics but probably about two thirds of Poland."

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has said Moscow reserves the right to deploy the Iskanders anywhere in Russia and other senior Russian military officials have said Kaliningrad will get the Iskanders in the next few years as part of a routine nationwide upgrade.

 

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/russia-seen-putting-nuclear-capable-missiles-along-nato-094118736.html

 

[Sylence]

that shield built for Iran? it's b.s. Iran doesn't officially possess any ICBM. 

[dMog]

this stuff happened in the 50s and 60s and all the way up to to the breakup of the soviet union...nato had nukes deployed all over western europe .... can't blame the old soviet union for not being happy about that... but looks like the return of the cold war and has been for some time.... lets hope it is just going to rhetoric and posturing oneupmanship and bluster as it was before

[ben01]

9 hours ago, saeed_dc said:

that shield built for Iran? it's b.s. Iran doesn't officially possess any ICBM. 

This shield has never been against Iran.

 

It's clearly against evil Russia.

[Sylence]

27 minutes ago, ben01 said:

This shield has never been against Iran.

 

It's clearly against evil Russia.

 

so you agree the west says nothing but B.S. good

 

evil Russia and angel america? lol

[ben01]

29 minutes ago, saeed_dc said:

 

so you agree the west says nothing but B.S. good

 

 

exactly. It's all propaganda.

[mclaren85]

6 hours ago, ben01 said:

exactly. It's all propaganda.

Sorry Sir but you are brainwashed by Western propaganda. Who was encircling the USSR during the cold war and provoking war? And who promised not to close to Russia's border in 1991? And who invited eastern block countries to Nato? You don't have to answer me of course but you have the internet and you can get the true information.

 

PS. I'm not defending Neither USA nor Russia but it is clearly evident that USA is much much more aggressive than Russia.

[Karabasas]

23 minutes ago, mclaren85 said:

Sorry Sir but you are brainwashed by Western propaganda. Who was encircling the USSR during the cold war and provoking war? And who promised not to close to Russia's border in 1991? And who invited eastern block countries to Nato? You don't have to answer me of course but you have the internet and you can get the true information.

 

PS. I'm not defending Neither USA nor Russia but it is clearly evident that USA is much much more aggressive than Russia.

And who occupied Ossetia, Crimea Eastern Ukraine, still occupying Kuril Island's, as well Konigsberg itself?

 

Whose business it is to keep dumbfounded public in endless military conflicts as only war's and population hunger unites "Russian Pyderasion" so "Vlad ze little" and his chronies could keep on pumping billions in to the personal account's ?

 

With time, I began to change my view about actual "nation", that calls ownselves as "Russians". I used to say, that it was only leadership, that was vile warmongers, but seems few posters are of such character in own accord...

 

 

[Alpha&Omega666]

Satan's missiles Nuclear W...

[mclaren85]

14 minutes ago, Karabasas said:

And who occupied Ossetia, Crimea Eastern Ukraine, still occupying Kuril Island's, as well Konigsberg itself?

 

Whose business it is to keep dumbfounded public in endless military conflicts as only war's and population hunger unites "Russian Pyderasion" so "Vlad ze little" and his chronies could keep on pumping billions in to the personal account's ?

 

With time, I began to change my view about actual "nation", that calls ownselves as "Russians". I used to say, that it was only leadership, that was vile warmongers, but seems few posters are of such character in own accord...

 

 

Ossetia already hold referendum in 2006. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Ossetian_independence_referendum,_2006) And also, this region also has positive attitude towards Russia/Soviet Union. You can see it in the map.

 

I'm not defending what Russia had done to Ukraine, it is completely indefensible. But in war times these gains can be justified. Soviet had lost 20 million people because of Germany. So I think it is cool for konigsberg to become Kaliningrad. just like Kuril island. Besides, US invaded - and still there as of 2016- Okinawa. And they are in my country also without my consent (İncirlik Aribase). As a Turkish citizen, I'm not allowed to travel that city. Agree or not this is an invasion of American type.

 

And I'm very sure that unless NATO find itself a reasonable enemy it will dissolve. Until recently, terrorism was working good to keep NATO together but they decided to switch to the old enemy :Russia.

Do you think Romanian air defence is protecting US from North Korea? Bullshit.

 

[TheMountain]

4 minutes ago, mclaren85 said:

Ossetia already hold referendum in 2006. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Ossetian_independence_referendum,_2006)

 

 You can see it in the map.

 

Wait, hold on. 

 

The referendum was in 2006. 

 

And the posted map's date is 2011. 

 

Attitudes & opinions can significantly change after five, ten years. 

 

---

 

The former Soviet Union did nothing positive for the former Yugoslavia. The Kremlin only made things worse. 

[mclaren85]

8 minutes ago, TheMountain said:

 

Wait, hold on. 

 

The referendum was in 2006. 

 

And the posted map's date is 2011. 

 

Attitudes & opinions can significantly change after five, ten years. 

 

---

 

The former Soviet Union did nothing positive for the former Yugoslavia. The Kremlin only made things worse. 

Sorry for  misunderstanding that was my fault. Let me clarify.. The map was a referendum for deciding the Soviet Union fate in 1991 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union_referendum,_1991 ) I showed the map to show you the participation percent of Ossetia which has a positive feelings about Russians. The 2011 is the date which the graphic was created.

 

And USSR "couldn't" do anything to Yugoslavia. Because Yugoslavia decided to join Non-Aligned Movement.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Aligned_Movement

[Karabasas]

Where soviets come- tanks follow... native population gets uprooted and repopulated with commies...

 

Anyone having ANY relative border with putin'Istan should be weary of "not rigged" green men consensus.

[mclaren85]

Ok here comes another one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Grenada

Surprised?

 

[Karabasas]

28 minutes ago, mclaren85 said:

Ok here comes another one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Grenada

Surprised?

 

no, i don't see relevance or use to discuss such.

 

Warmongering and similar traits are outdated philosophy by at least 30 years, in current (most) of the world, only few regions, where such ideas are even contemplated as some sort of solutions.

 

I mean Vlad ze little is retarded, but people supporting his ideas are even dumber.