Russia will strengthen its Baltic fleet in response to U.S. plans to deploy Patriot missiles in Poland, Russian state news agency RIA reported on Thursday, citing an unnamed senior navy official."The surface, underwater and aviation elements of the Baltic Fleet will be strengthened," RIA quoted the unidentified Russian navy official as saying.
The United States is dispatching the missiles to Poland after dropping an earlier plan to deploy interceptor missiles in the NATO nation as part of an anti-missile system in Europe.
"In connection with the plans to install the Patriots on Polish territory in the next 5 to 7 years, there may be significant changes in the approach to define the tasks and the military potential of the Baltic Fleet," RIA quoted the same source as saying.
A spokesman for the Russian navy declined to comment.
Warsaw said this week it would station the Patriot missile battery in the northern city of Morag, near Russia's Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.
A high-ranking source in Poland's Foreign Ministry said Warsaw was not overly concerned about Russia's reported plan.
"Let's stay calm. Such strengthening, even if it becomes true, is no direct threat to Poland," the source told Reuters.
"The Russians have known about the Patriots for at least two years. So there is no reason to react to unofficial comments."
This would be as if Chavez adds missiles which can be used against F-18's and SCUDS and we respond by adding submarines.
It tells us more about how Russian leaders think about events, rather than how they can respond effectively, for this is surely a WTF.
Many Poles still view Russia, its communist-era overlord, as a potential security threat, especially after the August 2008 conflict in Georgia.
Moscow has expressed concern about what it calls U.S. military encroachment and threatened to respond to any change in the current military balance on its western borders with NATO nations.
President Dmitry Medvedev had previously warned Moscow would station Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad if Washington went ahead with its original anti-missile plan. U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to revise it pleased the Kremlin.
But the plan to install Patriot missiles has resurrected longstanding Russian suspicions about the motive for the strengthened NATO presence near its borders, said Alexei Fenenko of the Institute of International Security Studies in Moscow.
"Russia was very concerned about the anti-missile system being installed in Poland and the Czech Republic and didn't understand the need for it in these locations, if it was intended against Iran," he said.
'You must not defend yourselves with weapons which can be used only against our weapons and only if they have already launched against you, it makes us suspicious.'
You have to wonder if they have a clue.
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1 comment:
I think Russia thinks of our defense of Poland as being the equivalent of their occupation of Poland. It's all chess pieces to them. They don't care about the Polish people. They only see the economic and military strategy.
They, like Chomsky and Zinn, think of our helping nations, like Poland and Iraq, as being the equivalent of hegemony and occupation.
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