A Russian general argued on Wednesday that the U.S. decision to deploy Patriot missiles 100 kilometers from the Russian border in Poland is a demonstrative anti-Russian move.
“Though from the military point of view those systems in Poland don’t pose any particular threat to Russia, it’s not a good signal, one that won’t help carry through confidence-building measures in Eastern Europe,” Lt. Gen. Aitech Bizhev, a former commander of the United Air Defense System of the Commonwealth of Independent States, told Interfax.
“It’s completely unclear why the air defense group of the northern flank of NATO needed strengthening – NATO has manifold superiority over Russian conventional armaments as it is,” he said.
“It can’t be ruled out that the stationing of the Patriots in Poland may be followed by other actions in building up the American military infrastructure in Eastern Europe and the aim of deploying those systems is to cover those facilities,” Bizhev said.
Polish media said the Polish government had decided to have the missiles deployed in the north of the country, 100 kilometers from the border of Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.
Initially the Patriots were planned to be stationed near Warsaw but later Polish experts came to the conclusion that the town of Morag in the north of the country would be the best deployment site for the rockets, which are expected to be delivered to Poland in April this year.
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