Russia warned Poland on Friday that it is exposing itself to attack - even a nuclear one - by accepting a U.S. missile interceptor base on its soil, delivering Moscow's strongest language yet against the plan.
American and Polish officials stuck firmly by their deal, signed Thursday, for Poland to host a system that Washington says is meant to block missile attacks by rogue nations like Iran.
Moscow is convinced the base is aimed at Russia's missile force, however, and the deal comes as relations already are strained over the fighting between Russia and U.S.-allied Georgia over the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia.
"Poland, by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike - 100 percent," Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff of Russia's armed forces, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
He noted Russia's military doctrine sanctions the use of nuclear weapons "against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them." Nogovitsyn said that would include elements of any strategic deterrence system, according to Interfax.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the deal "absolutely clearly demonstrates what we had said earlier - the deployment has the Russian Federation as its target."
Has the dangerous situation in the Caucasus fomented by the neocons now taken on a possibly unstoppable momentum of its own towards war between the US and Russia?
