MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. Moscow may ramp up military and technical measures of response to emerging threats in the wake of plans by the United States and its allies to create an arsenal of land-based intermediate- and shorter-range missiles, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday.
"We will continue closely watching practical measures by the United States and its allies in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region for creating an arsenal of land-based intermediate-and shorter-range missiles, especially taking into account the intentions announced by Great Britain," the Russian diplomat said.
"We are by no means shutting the door for a dialogue but do not rule out in the current conditions that Russia will have to increasingly shift the focus of efforts towards implementing military and technical measures of response to emerging missile threats," the statement says.
The Russian diplomat drew attention to Pentagon officials’ statements, "which have started to be voiced ever more frequently in the past few weeks" about practical steps for creating and deploying land-based intermediate- and shorter-range missiles in various regions of the world as quickly as possible.
"At the same time, it has been defined that the main task on European soil will be to strike air defense systems "and make breaches in the enemy defense" in the conditions of a conflict with Russia. On this track, the UK military has joined these outright hostile and destabilizing statements and actions. What captures attention is that Anglo-Saxon commanders are heavily fixed on the task of striking solely defensive means that ensure the security of the Russian Federation in case of threat of a military attack," the diplomat pointed out.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman also noted that the British military’s data on the range of the PrSM (Precision Strike Missile) that was allegedly limited to 499 km was "clearly and deliberately misleading."
"The implementation of such military programs is gaining momentum, which obviously narrows the space for resolving the problem of the post-INF [Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty] by political and diplomatic means and preventing the most serious aggravation in the missile sphere. All this is taking place in the absence of clear signals for us on this issue from the political elite of the new US administration and also from an overwhelming majority of US NATO allies which, as the crisis around the INF has shown, have assumed a conciliating position on this issue that is of paramount importance for European security," the Russian diplomat said.
Meanwhile, Russia’s initiatives on settling the sides’ accumulated concerns are left "without a constructive response," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.