Russia’s latest threat to deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe if NATO doesn’t make new promises has one hitch: the U.S.-led NATO alliance says Moscow has already activated such weapons.
Moscow wants the U.S. to restart talks over the now defunct Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which Washington pulled out of in 2019, saying that Moscow had already broken the Cold War-era agreement.
The treaty put a ban on missiles with a range between 310 and 3,400 miles.
“It is not credible when (the Russians) now propose a ban on something they actually have already started to deploy,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Tuesday in Brussels. […]
But Ryabkov said the U.S. Army’s reactivation in early November of the 56th Artillery Command, which is based in Wiesbaden, Germany, is among the “indirect indications” to Russia that NATO intends to redeploy such weapons in Europe.
He also dismissed statements to the contrary, saying that Russia regards the alliance with “a complete lack of trust” and “does not believe in NATO assurances.”Läs artikel