Juan Pablo Duch

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Monday, July 29, 2024, p. 26

Moscow. The United States and Germany have two years to reconsider the decision to install short- and medium-range American missiles on German territory; if they do not, Russia will respond with symmetrical measures and, among others, will deploy missile systems capable of hitting targets in Europe between 500 and 5,500 kilometers away, whose design is in final phase.

In short, this is the warning issued yesterday by President Vladimir Putin in the brief speech he gave at the ceremony to commemorate the Day of the Russian Navy in St. Petersburg, which included the parade of some twenty warships, as well as three foreign vessels: a training ship from Algeria, a destroyer from China and a frigate from India.

Referring to the recent joint statement by Washington and Berlin announcing that they have agreed to deploy high-precision missiles on German territory from 2026, Putin warned: If the United States implements these plans, we will consider ourselves freed from the previously assumed unilateral moratorium on the deployment of short- and medium-range weapons, including the improvement of the combat capability of our Navy’s coastal forces..

According to the Russian president, these American missiles, if installed on German soil and could carry nuclear warheadswould take on average no more than 10 minutes of flight in arriving at important government headquarters and command centres of the armed forces, as well as military infrastructure From Russia.

For this reason, the Kremlin will take symmetrical measures and deploy its weapons systems, whose design is in the final phase, depending on what the United States and its satellites in Europe and other regions of the world do.Putin stressed, implying that he will deploy his short- and medium-range missiles wherever he deems most appropriate to strengthen Russia’s national security.

The Soviet Union and the United States agreed in 1987 to destroy their short- and medium-range missiles in Europe, within the range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers, but the treaty ceased to be in force in 2019 amid mutual accusations of non-compliance with its terms.

However, Russia has since made a commitment not to be the first to deploy such weapons, and, as Putin reiterated yesterday, it is up to the United States to continue to deploy them or not.