Lawmaker recalls Russia’s "continental islands" in view of US plans for nuclear arms in EU

MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/. The chairman of the State Duma’s defense committee, Vladimir Komoyedov, has recalled Russia’s continental islands - a term he applied to Crimea and the westernmost Kaliningrad Region - in view of the possibility the United States might deploy nuclear weapons in Germany.

"Firstly, Russia is a large country. We have big continental islands - the Kaliningrad Region, Crimea, and others," Komoyedov told TASS. "I believe that even the weapons that we have at our disposal in Russian territory will be quite enough to maintain the country’s security."

As Germany’s television broadcaster ZDF said on its website, at Germany’s armed forces base near Buchel, Rheinland-Pfalz, preparations are getting underway for the deployment of new US nuclear bombs. The journalists arrived at the conclusion on the basis of analysis of the US government’s budget documents for this year. According to the papers, special funds will begin to be disbursed starting from the third quarter of 2015 to the US Air Force for arming Germany’s Tornado fighter-bombers with a new nuclear weapon system.

The ZDF channel recalls that back in March 2010 the German parliament voted for empowering the federal government to conduct negotiations with Washington on the transportation of US nuclear weapons from German territory. Apart from this plans for nuclear disarmament were drawn up when the coalition treaty was concluded in 2009.

"However, instead of disarmament there now follows the deployment of twenty new atom bombs, their total yield being 80 times greater than that of the atom bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima," the report says.

According to experts’ estimates, the Buchel air base has kept ten to twenty US nuclear warheads since the end of the Cold War. Peace activists hold Easter marches and mass rallies near the base demanding the removal of nuclear warheads from Germany.

Russian presidential press-secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Germany’s consent to host US nuclear weapons in its territory was building up tensions in Europe, upsetting the strategic balance and requiring Russia should take measures to protect its national security.