Analyst Korotchenko: "Oreshnik" can be deployed in the east of Russia
MOSCOW, Aug 6 – RIA Novosti. The Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missiles can be deployed not only in the western, but also in the eastern part of Russia, if the situation in this area requires it, Igor Korotchenko, a Russian military analyst and editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine, told RIA Novosti.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Russia notes the disappearance of conditions for maintaining a unilateral moratorium on the deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range land-based missiles and no longer considers itself bound by the relevant previously adopted self-restrictions.
On Tuesday, Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia considers itself entitled, if necessary, to take steps regarding the deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range land-based missiles, there are no restrictions on this.
"As for the eastern part of our country, here we are witnessing a large-scale arms race, the active activity of the AUKUS bloc, the formation of the eastern wing of NATO. As soon as the American medium-range Typhon systems appear on the territory of at least one American-friendly country in the region, be it the Philippines, Japan or South Korea, these systems will also be deployed by the Russian Federation in the positional areas in the east of the country," said Korotchenko.
According to him, taking into account the launch range of the Oreshnik, if necessary, the entire Alaska and a significant part of Canada will fall into the affected area.
Korotchenko did not rule out other scenarios for the deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles. For example, in response to the militarization of the Baltic region, it may be decided to deploy mobile-based Zircon missiles in the Kaliningrad region.
Speaking about Russia's lifting of restrictions in the field of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles, the analyst stressed that this is primarily due to the exceptionally aggressive policy of European NATO member states, as well as the European Union, towards the Russian Federation.
Among the elements of such a policy, he called pumping Ukraine with weapons, support, including joint planning and implementation of sabotage operations against Russia. In addition, Korotchenko mentioned cyber attacks against critical Russian IT infrastructure facilities, which are allegedly carried out by international or Ukrainian hackers, but are actually organized by Western specialists.
In addition, he recalled Germany's announced plans to acquire, deploy and put on combat duty Typhon medium-range complexes in the United States. They may appear there as early as next year, the analyst noted.
"But at the same time, I must say that the air defense and missile defense systems that are currently available in European NATO countries cannot intercept the Oreshnik warheads. Physically, they cannot do this, because there are no such possibilities. And this means that the Oreshnik warheads are guaranteed to hit the designated target. Guaranteed without the possibility of being shot down," Korotchenko added.
