Russia has said it may be forced to deploy nuclear missiles in Europe

 

 Russia said on Monday that it could be forced to deploy medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe in response to NATO's plans to do the same, Reuters reports.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov's warning has increased the risk of a new arms race on the continent, amid tensions between East and West, unprecedented since the end of the Cold War three decades ago.

 Ryabkov said Russia would be forced to act if the West refused to join it in a moratorium on Europe's medium-range nuclear forces, part of a package of security guarantees it is seeking as a price to defuse the Ukraine crisis.

The lack of progress towards a political and diplomatic solution would force Russia to respond militarily with military technology, Ryabkov told Russia's RIA Novosti news agency.

"That is, there will be a confrontation, this will be the next round," he said, given the potential deployment of Russian missiles.

 Medium-range nuclear weapons, those ranging from 500 to 5,500 km, were banned in Europe under a 1987 treaty between then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan, which was then hailed as a significant easing of tensions. from the Cold War. By 1991, the two countries had destroyed nearly 2,700 of them.

Washington withdrew from the pact in 2019 after years of complaining of alleged violations related to Russia's development of cruise missiles, which Moscow calls 9M729.

 If NATO is right that Russia has already deployed this system in the European part of the country west of the Ural Mountains, then Ryabkov's threat is in vain, according to Gerhard Mangot, an expert on Russian foreign policy and arms control at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. .

But if Russia's denials are true, he said, then Moscow's warning is "the latest signal to NATO that it must start negotiations with Russia on an agreement to freeze the arms race."

He added: "If NATO adheres to the position of not negotiating a deal, then we will certainly see how Russia deploys these missiles on its own western border."