NATO warplanes in Baltic states: Russia may retaliate

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NATO warplanes in Baltic states: Russia may retaliate

* Foreign Ministry spokesman says such plans threaten Moscow’s security

MOSCOW: Russia may take retaliatory steps if NATO goes ahead with plans to station warplanes and air defences in the ex-Soviet Baltic republics, a top Russian foreign ministry official warned on Tuesday.

“If the alliance considers that such defences are needed in the region, then Russia reserves the right to make its own conclusions and if necessary, take corresponding measures,” foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told reporters. “It is clear that such plans directly threaten Russia’s security,” he added.

Denmark is contemplating sending four F-16 fighter jets to patrol Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania next month when the Baltic nations are set to join NATO, a Danish military spokesman said last week. Relations between NATO and Russia have been tense of late, notably ahead of an April 2 ceremony to formally welcome four former Soviet bloc countries — Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia — plus the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into the alliance fold.

Last month Russian military officials accused the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation — which has bolstered its ties with Moscow over the last few years — of having spied on its military installations using AWACS surveillance planes over the Baltic region. NATO said the AWACS in question were simply flying demonstration flights for incoming member Latvia, and that Russia was kept fully informed.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov urged NATO in February not to put new military facilities in Poland and the Baltics, warning that Moscow could take measures if its interests were threatened. He said Russia had held off as NATO expanded eastward, but warned things might change and suggested that Moscow could boost its military presence in its Kaliningrad enclave between Poland and the Baltics.

Russia has watched warily as the Atlantic alliance has expanded eastwards ever closer to its borders following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The bloc already includes former Soviet satellites the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland which joined in 1999. —AFP


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