A senior Russian general warned Wednesday that his country could send short-range missiles to Belarus as part of efforts to counter planned U.S. missile defence 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 U.S. missile defence in Poland and the Czech Republic," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
The U.S. plan would install a radar base in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland — both former Soviet satellites that are now NATO members. It is part of a wider missile shield involving defences in California and Alaska that the United States says are to defend against any long-range missile attack from countries such as North Korea or Iran.
Russia strongly opposes the idea, saying Iran is decades away from developing missile technology that could threaten Europe or North America, and it says the U.S. bases will undermine Russia's own missile deterrent force.
President Vladimir Putin and other officials have warned that Russia could target the planned U.S. defence sites in Europe with its missiles.
Zaritsky was responding to his Belarusian counterpart, who said Russia could provide Belarus with its new short-range Iskander missiles, which are believed to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
"Why not — given adequate conditions and an adequate Belarusian opposition," Zaritsky said.
Although sending the missiles would apparently place them under Belarusian rather than Russian command, the countries' missile forces are seen as working in unison.
"There is a common task and we are prepared to work with them," Zaritsky 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.
Placing Iskander missiles in Belarus, which borders Poland, would likely put planned U.S. missile defences there within range; a site in the Czech Republic would likely be out of reach.
Tensions over the U.S. missile defence plans and arms control agreements have strained Russia's ties with the West, drawing comparisons with Cold War times.
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