MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. China has deployed inter-continental ballistic missiles near Russia with the aim to be able to reach targets in the United States, Canada and Europe, the president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Doctor of Military Science Konstantin Sivkov, has said.

Earlier, the daily Global Times said China had deployed inter-continental ballistic missiles of its own design (DF-41) in northeastern Heilongjiang province bordering Russia.

"This is an inter-continental class missile with an effective range of ten thousand to twelve thousand kilometers. The missile’s dead zone is no less than three thousand kilometers. A large territory of Russia, practically the entire Far East and West Siberia are not within the missile’s reach," Sivkov told TASS.

Selecting this area for deploying the missiles targeted against Russian territory would be not expedient from the military point of view.

"If that were the purpose, the missiles should have been stationed deep inside mainland China or on its southern border," Sivkov explained.

In his opinion missiles of that class stationed where they are will have the capability to reach targets in the United States, Canada and Europe.

"This is China’s response to threats pronounced by the new US president, Donald Trump. Also, Chinese missiles would be able to use a more advantageous northern strategic route for approaching targets in the United States, thus bypassing the US missile defense," Sivkov said.

The three-stage solid propellant ICBM DF-41 (Dongfeng-41, also known by its NATO reporting name CSS-X-10), was designed by China’s Academy of Rocket Motor Technology. It is presumably armed with a multiple warhead consisting of ten to twelve independently targetable reentry vehicles.