NATO officials accused Russia of “aggressive military posturing” Tuesday for deploying advanced missile systems to its westernmost regions, capable of hitting major NATO capitals.
Russia’s “aggressive military posturing” will do nothing to “lower tensions or restore predictability to our relations,” NATO officials elaborated in the statement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to the accusation, telling reporters “Russia is doing everything necessary to ensure its security in the face of expansion by Nato towards its borders. The alliance really is an aggressive bloc, therefore Russia must do everything it can, and in this case it has the sovereign right to take necessary measures across its whole territory.”
Russia reportedly deployed Iskander-M missiles to Kaliningrad in October, putting them in range of NATO’s four Baltic capitals. The country also deployed two nuclear missile frigates to Kaliningrad the same month, which have a range of nearly 1,000 miles, spanning most of the European continent.
The U.S. formally accused Russia in October of violating a missile treaty that restricts land based missile ranges to 300 miles. Russia in turn accused the U.S. of violating the treaty, but has not yet provided any evidence.
“For Warsaw and several other NATO capitals, this move resembles a Baltic version of the Cuban Missile Crisis,” former NSA analyst and national security expert John Schindler wrote in The New York Observer following the Iskander-M deployment.
Schindler continued, “An Iskander-M based in Kaliningrad can strike targets deep in Poland and across the whole Baltic region. Make no mistake, this is primarily an offensive weapons system.”
Putin couched the missile deployments in terms of defense, in a wide ranging interview with Hollywood director Oliver Stone broadcast Tuesday.
“When a country becomes a Nato member, it’s very difficult for it to resist pressure from such a big country leading Nato, the US,” Putin said. He continued, “What should we do? Well in this case we should take counter measures, to use our missile systems to hit those targets that have started to threaten us. The situation is worrying.”
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