The Kremlin linked the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus with the expansion of NATO

The deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus will balance the entire security architecture in Europe against the backdrop of NATO expansion towards Russia’s borders. This was stated by the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov.

Journalists asked him to comment on the words of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that the statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus was made just a few days after Moscow and Beijing declared that they would not deploy nuclear weapons outside their borders. .

Peskov stressed that it is NATO that is expanding towards Russian borders, and not Russia is placing its military infrastructure near the borders of the alliance.

“There is a movement in the opposite direction. This movement gives us trouble and worries for our safety. Worried about our security, of course, we take measures to ensure it, and every time NATO approaches our borders, in order to rebalance the entire security architecture on the continent,” he said.

April 4 to NATO entered Finland, becoming the 31st member of the alliance. Then Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto signed a document on the republic’s entry into the alliance. The ceremony was also attended by Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and Finnish Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen. On the same day, Peskov said that Finland’s entry into the North Atlantic bloc leads to aggravate the situation in the world. Moscow considers the expansion of the alliance an encroachment on the security and national interests of the Russian Federation, he stressed. Peskov added that such steps are forcing Russia to take measures to ensure the country’s security.

March 25 Russian President Vladimir Putin declared on the completion of the construction of a storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons (TNW) in Belarus by July this year. The President noted that Moscow is not transferring nuclear weapons to Minsk, but is doing what the United States has been doing for many years – deploying tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of allies and training their pilots in handling them.

There is nothing unusual in the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in the republic, the Russian president pointed out, noting that the United States has been doing the same thing for decades: American nuclear weapons have been placed on the territory of NATO countries in Europe. Russia has already handed over to the republic the Iskander complex, which can be the carrier of such weapons.