By John Owen Nwachukwu A senior US defence official has described Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ‘cavalier’ language around the ...
By John Owen Nwachukwu
A senior US defence official has described Russian President
Vladimir Putin’s ‘cavalier’ language around the nuclear-capable missile systems
pledged to Belarus as pretty irresponsible.
“Our strategic forces are always monitoring things in that
regard,” said the official in a background call with reporters, CNN reports.
“We are certainly taking that seriously and have taken that
threat seriously from the very beginning.
“Certainly any time anybody uses the word nuclear, you have
concerns. Quite honestly it seems pretty irresponsible of a national leader to
talk about the employment of nuclear weapons and to do so in a generally
cavalier fashion.
“In terms of my concerns, other than the fact that they talk
about, again, I mean the way that that statement read from Putin was, hey we’re
going to give them Iskanders, and oh by the way they can hold nuclear weapons.
“And everybody takes that very seriously when you use that language.
So we are certainly taking that seriously and have taken that threat seriously
from the very beginning.
“And as you know our strategic forces are always monitoring
things in that regard.”
Russian President, Vladimir Putin had on Saturday told Belarusian
President, Alexander Lukashenko that Russia will transfer nuclear-capable
Iskander-M missile systems to Belarus over the coming months.
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