Russia threatens countermeasures if US upgrades Germany’s nukes

Russia has threatened to take “countermeasures” against US plans to station upgraded nuclear bombs in a military base in Germany.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the move would disrupt the strategic balance in Europe and corresponding counter steps would be adopted in order to restore the strategic balance and parity in the continent, the Russian RT news agency reported.

“This is another step and unfortunately it is a very serious step towards increase of tensions on the European continent. Such actions cannot be described as a step towards stronger trust and greater stability,” President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary further said, adding that it was not a step towards strengthening stability, confidence building, and enhancement of security in Europe.

Peskov did not specify what kind of countermeasures Russia might use, but Interfax news agency cited an unnamed source “from military-diplomatic circles” saying that if Washington proceeds with its plan, Moscow might bring its newest Iskander-M tactical nuclear weapons to Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea in Eastern Europe that borders Poland and Lithuania.

The reaction was made after Germany’s ZDF public television network reported on Tuesday that US Air Force was getting prepared to station 20 new B61-12 nuclear bombs in Luftwaffe’s Büchel Air Base in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany in autumn. According to reports, each nuke is 80 times more destructive than the one that was used on Hiroshima.

A previous ruling by the German parliament (Bundestag) in 2010 called on the federal government to take necessary action for the removal of the American nuclear weapons from the territory of Germany.

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