MOSCOW, June 24. /TASS/. Possible deployment of US missiles on the ground near Russian borders may trigger a missile crisis identical in scale to the Caribbean one, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Federation Council during debates on a bill on the suspension of Russia’s participation in the treaty on the elimination of intermediate and shorter range missiles (INF Treaty).
"As far as the US plans are concerned, the White House, the Pentagon, and NATO’s international secretariat keep telling us the US and the alliance have no plans or intentions to deploy future systems of this range on the ground in Europe," Ryabkov said. "The current events, in particular, those involving the Russia-NATO Founding Act, which declares that the alliance has no plans, intentions or reasons to deploy considerable forces near Russian borders in the territories of newly-admitted NATO members, indicate that all this can be easily changed."
"We should brace for the worst scenario. There are no plans, but the Mk-41 launchers are a reality," Ryabkov said. "NATO’s intentions have been aggressive all along and they remain so. If it comes to the real deployment of such systems on the ground, the situation will not just get worse, but aggravate to the maximum and we may find ourselves in the situation of a missile crisis pretty close to the Caribbean one.".