Bruits de bottes en Europe orientale
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Pentagon poised to store heavy weapons in Baltic and Eastern Europe - NYT | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/13/us-usa-military-europe-idUSKBN0OT0TR20150613
The Pentagon is poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 troops in several Baltic and Eastern European countries, to deter any possible further Russian aggression in Europe, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
Citing U.S. and allied officials, the newspaper said that if approved the proposal would mark the first time since the Cold War that Washington has stationed heavy military equipment in the newer NATO member states in Eastern Europe that were once part of the Soviet sphere of influence.
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Nato rebukes Putin’s ’nuclear rhetoric’
▻https://euobserver.com/defence/129144
Nato has accused Russia of “nuclear sabre-rattling” after Vladimir Putin said he’ll deploy 40 new missiles.
The Russian leader made the announcement on Tuesday (16 June) at an arms fair in Kubinka, near Moscow.
“This year, our nuclear forces are going to get more than 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles [ICBMs] capable of penetrating all existing, even the most advanced missile defences”, he said.
[…]
For his part, Pavel Podvig, a Russian military expert who works for the UN’s Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva, played down the importance of the ICBMs.
He told EUobserver Russia has about 300 of them in service, as well as nuclear submarines and strategic bombers.
He also said its rearmament programme began before the Ukraine crisis. “It [the 40 new ICBMs] is not a particularly big increase in numbers. It’s business as usual”.
Igor Sutyagin, a Russia expert at Rusi, a UK defence think tank, said Russia is likely to retire about 60 ICBMs this year, resulting in a net decrease.
He said some of its Soviet-era missiles are inferior to what the UK and the US had in the 1970s.
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Kerry said concerned by Putin’s missile announcement - Yahoo News
▻http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-said-concerned-putins-missile-announcement-173814777.html
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday he was concerned by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement he would add more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to Russia’s nuclear arsenal this year.
“It does concern me,” Kerry told reporters at a news briefing.
Kerry said Putin’s stance could be posturing but added, “Nobody should hear that kind of announcement from the leader of a powerful country and not be concerned about what the implications are.”
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Putin: Russia would be forced to direct armed forces at any aggressors - Yahoo Maktoob News
►https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/putin-says-russia-forced-aim-armed-forces-aggressors-18310208
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia would be forced to direct its armed forces at any countries which might threaten it, potentially adding to tensions with Western powers over its military ambitions.
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Putin noted that Russia was most concerned about a long-running NATO project to build a missile defense system in Europe. Moscow has repeatedly expressed opposition to that, and earlier on Tuesday Putin said Russia would add more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal this year.
“It is NATO that is moving towards our border and we aren’t moving anywhere,” he said.