Senior military official warns Russia may deploy short-range missiles to neighboring country as part of efforts to counter planned deployment of US missile defense sites in Europe
A senior general warned Wednesday that Russia could deploy short-range missiles to Belarus as part of efforts to counter the planned deployment of US missile defense sites in Europe, Russian news reports said.
Col.-Gen. Vladimir Zaritsky, the chief of artillery and rocket forces for the Russian Ground Troops, said that "any action meets a counteraction, and this is the case with elements of the US missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
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Russia has fiercely opposed US plans to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech republic.
President Vladimir Putin and other officials have warned that Russia could target the planned US defense sites in Europe with its missiles.
Putin has dismissed US claims that the sites were intended to provide protection from a missile threat from Iran and said they would weaken Russia's nuclear deterrent.
Zaritsky was responding to his Belarusian counterpart who said that Russia could provide Belarus with its new short-range Iskander missiles.
Zaritsky said that Iskander missiles can strike targets at ranges between 300 and 500 kilometers (190 to 310 miles), news reports said.
Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, a pariah in the West for his relentless crackdown on dissent and free media, has relied on Russia's support and the two nations have developed close political and military ties.
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