Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Sunday that if the United States of America (US) places long-range missiles in Germany, Russia will place similar missiles in places where they can hit the West.
Speaking at a naval parade in St Petersburg, Putin promised symmetrical measures as the US announced earlier this month that it would begin deploying weapons to Germany in 2026 to reaffirm its commitment to NATO and European defense after Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
"If the US were to implement such plans, we will consider ourselves freed from the previously imposed unilateral moratorium on the deployment of medium- and short-range strike weapons, including increasing the capacity of our navy's coastal forces," Putin said, adding that the development of the corresponding Russian systems "is in the final stages." .
In a speech to sailors from Russia, China, Algeria and India to mark Russian Navy Day in the former capital of the empire, St. Petersburg, Putin warned the US that it risks provoking a Cold War-style missile crisis.
"The flight time to targets on our territory of such missiles, which may be equipped with nuclear warheads in the future, will be about 10 minutes," Putin said.
He added that Russia will take symmetrical measures to deploy missiles "taking into account the actions of the US, its satellites in Europe and other regions of the world".
Putin, who sent the army to Ukraine in 2022, presents that war as part of a historic struggle with the West, which he says has humiliated Russia since, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, it encroached into what the Russian president considers Moscow's sphere of influence.
Russian and American diplomats say that diplomatic relations between the two countries are even worse than during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
In recent weeks, both Washington and Moscow have hinted at the possibility of deploying medium-range land-based weapons that were banned for decades by the 1987 U.S.-Soviet treaty.
The US withdrew from the agreement in 2019, accusing Moscow of conducting missile tests that violated it.
Washington and Berlin said in a joint statement this month that US weapons to be deployed in Germany would include SM-6 missiles, Tomahawk cruise missiles and "developmental hypersonic weapons", including those with significantly longer ranges than those currently deployed across the country. of Europe.
Most Russian missile systems are capable of carrying either conventional or nuclear warheads.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said last Sunday that the Kremlin is not ruling out a new deployment of nuclear missiles in response to US moves.
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