Russia warns that the increased military operations of NATO, led by the US, is deteriorating the military-political situation in the world.
Earlier this week, Poland said it was also considering asking NATO for borrowing nuclear weapons from the United States under the Western alliance’s “nuclear sharing” program.
Shoigu said that Russia has also greatly improved the capabilities of its strategic nuclear forces in a countermeasure to US and NATO’s rising nuclear deployment, adding that the Russian nuclear triad is now outfitted with 55 percent of modern hardware.
“We also observe the gradual expansion of the NATO bloc,” he said, adding that during a relatively short time NATO has increased by twofold its members.
Russia Modernizing Its Nuclear Triad
Modernization of the US nuclear arsenal in Europe poses threats to Russia and reduces the threshold for using these weapons, said Mikhail Ulyanov, chief of the Russian foreign ministry’s department for non-proliferation and arms control. Ulyanov argued that the US was violating the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) by sharing nuclear weapons with non-nuclear states.
Last month, the US tested a new universal nuclear-capable B61-12 bomb. Washington plans to retool its nukes in Europe with these B61-12 bombs by 2020. In response, Russia is aggressively modernizing its nuclear triad. Sergei Shoigu told reporters that at present, 55% of the country’s nuclear triad is fitted with modern hardware. More than 51% of hardware for the ground-based strategic nuclear forces is “up to date.”
Russia does not look favorably upon the deployment of nuclear weapons in NATO states near its borders. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in June that if NATO threatens Russia, Moscow will respond to the threat accordingly.
Author
