Russia Issues Nuclear Threat

Russia is prepared to aim strategic nuclear missiles at planned U.S. missile defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic, a senior military official said yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 14).

If the U.S. initiative is assessed to undermine Russia’s nuclear deterrent, said Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, head of Russian strategic missile forces, “I do not exclude … the missile defense shield sites in Poland and the Czech Republic being chosen as targets for some of our intercontinental ballistic missiles” (see GSN, Dec. 17).

The threat did not sit well with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Agence France-Presse reported.  “No declaration of this kind will influence Polish-American negotiations,” he said.

The Bush administration wants to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic.  It has identified Iranian missiles as the primary target of the system.

Solovtsov indicated he was not prepared to trust the United States.

“If the Americans signed a treaty with us that they would only deploy 10 antimissile rockets in Poland and one radar in the Czech Republic and will never put anything else there, then we could deal with this,” he said.

“However, they won’t sign, they just tell us verbally, ‘We won’t threaten you,” Solovtsov added (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Dec. 17).

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