Russian leader threatens to restart production of intermediate-range nuclear weapons if US deploys missiles in Germany.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the United States against deploying long-range missiles in Germany, saying Russia would then restart production of intermediate-range nuclear weapons and place similar missiles within striking distance of the West.
The United States said on July 10 it would begin deploying long-range missiles in Germany starting in 2026 as part of a long-term militarization effort that will include SM-6 and Tomahawk cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons under development.
Speaking to sailors from Russia, China, Algeria and India to mark Russian Navy Day in the former imperial capital of St. Petersburg, Putin said Sunday the United States risked triggering a Cold War-style missile crisis with the move.
“The flight time of such missiles, which in the future may be equipped with nuclear warheads, to targets on our territory will be about 10 minutes,” Putin said.
“We will take mirror measures to deploy, taking into account the actions of the United States, its satellites in Europe and in other regions of the world.”
These missiles, which can travel between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (310-3,420 miles), were the subject of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987. But both Washington and Moscow withdrew from the arms control treaty in 2019, each accusing the other of violations.
Putin, who sent his army into Ukraine in 2022, is portraying the war as part of a historic struggle with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 by encroaching on what he sees as Moscow's sphere of influence.
Ukraine and the West claim Putin is engaged in an imperial-style land grab. They have pledged to defeat Russia, which currently controls about 18 percent of Ukraine, including Crimea, and parts of four regions in eastern Ukraine.
Russia claims that lands that were once part of the Russian Empire are now part of Russia again and will never be returned.
'Direct confrontation'
Russian and US diplomats say relations are worse than during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. While both powers are urging de-escalation, they are also accused of taking steps to encourage escalation.
Putin said the United States had transferred Typhon missile systems to Denmark and the Philippines, and compared the U.S. plans to NATO's decision to deploy Pershing II launchers in Western Europe in 1979.
Soviet leaders, including General Secretary Yuri Andropov, feared that the deployment of the Pershing II was part of an elaborate US-led plan to decapitate the Soviet Union by eliminating its political and military leadership.
“This situation is reminiscent of the events of the Cold War involving the deployment of American Pershing medium-range missiles in Europe,” Putin said.
The United States deployed Pershing ballistic missiles in West Germany in the 1980s, at the height of the Cold War. The American missiles continued to be stationed there during German reunification and into the 1990s.
But after the end of the Cold War, the United States significantly reduced the number of missiles stationed in Europe as the threat from Moscow diminished.
The Kremlin had already warned in mid-July that the proposed US deployment would mean European capitals would become a target for Russian missiles.
“We are taking firm steps towards the Cold War. All the attributes of the Cold War are reappearing with direct confrontation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a state television journalist.
