The Bundestag considered nuclear weapons in Belarus as intimidation of the Russian Federation
Bundestag deputies from various parties reacted on Sunday, March 26, to the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lawmakers called this move Moscow intimidation.
CDU defense expert, retired Colonel Roderich Kiesewetter, warned the RND against fear amid Putin’s threats. “Putin seeks fear and self-control here, constantly emphasizing completely unrealistic nuclear war,” he said. According to Kiesewetter, the Russian president wants to reach “the goal of permanent uncertainty”.
“The aim of the threats is to undermine Western support for Ukraine”
Norbert Röttgen, member of the CDU’s Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag, also called for calm in conversation with the publications of the media group Funke. According to him, Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus do not pose an additional threat to Europe, as they have already been deployed in the Kaliningrad region.
“Nuclear threats have been part of the Kremlin’s repertoire since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression,” Anton Hofreiter, chairman of the Bundestag’s European affairs committee, told Funke, stressing that there is still no evidence that Russia actually plans to use nuclear weapons. . . “The aim of the threats is to undermine Western support for Ukraine,” he said.
Ralf Stegner, a parliamentarian from the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), leader of the coalition, called the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus an “escalation” and a “deterioration of the situation”, calling for the non-deployment of NATO nuclear weapons in Poland in response.
Russia installs nuclear weapons in Belarus
The day before, Putin said that Russia would deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. According to him, we are talking about 10 aircraft capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons and the Iskander missile system. In addition, in July 2023, construction of a storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons will be completed in Belarus, Putin announced. According to him, Russia is doing “the same thing that the United States has been doing for decades” by deploying tactical nuclear weapons in NATO countries. He added that Russia does not transfer weapons to Belarus, but only places them, which means that this step does not violate the agreement on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The German government has criticized the measure announced by Putin, calling it “another attempt at a nuclear scare”. “The comparison with NATO’s joint nuclear missions is misleading and cannot justify the measure announced by Russia,” said the spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry.
Source: DW
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