MEDIA: US INTELLIGENCE BELIEVES THAT RUSSIA DEPLOYED ISKANDERS NEAR KALININGRAD

According to unnamed source in the US intelligence, the Iskander-M ballistic missile systems have been deployed by Russia in Kaliningrad region.

Photo: Sputnik / Alexei Danichev

The US believes that Russia deployed the Iskander-M ballistic missile systems in Kaliningrad region, the Reuters news agency reported on Saturday, citing a source in the US intelligence.

The source, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the reasons of deployment of the ballistic missile systems in Kaliningrad “could be innocuous.”

“They moved a similar missile system to Kaliningrad in 2014 for a military exercise. It could also be a political gesture – a show of strength – to express displeasure with NATO,” the US official told Reuters, commenting on the information, appeared in Estonian media earlier.

There still are no comments of the Russian side in connection with the statement.

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According to the annual report ‘International Security and Estonia 2016’, published in March by the Estonian Information Department (also known as the Estonian Information System Authority), which deals with foreign intelligence, Estonian authorities fear the Iskander cruise missiles, deployed near Kaliningrad region and the borders with Estonia and Latvia. However, at the same time, the report noted that the use of tactical nuclear weapons against facilities, located in Estonia, or units of the NATO, stationed here, is unlikely.

Russia does not have any restrictions on deployment of the systems, but in any case it is necessary to analyze the military situation, Permanent Representative of Russia to the NATO, Alexander Grushko, said in late June, commenting on the possibility of deployment the Iskander missile systems in Kaliningrad. Meanwhile, Chief of Missile Forces and Artillery of the Russian Ground Forces, Major General Mikhail Matveevsky said in May 2015 that the missile brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, deployed in Kaliningrad region, as all other missile brigades, will be rearmed with the Iskander-M operational-tactical systems by 2018.

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