Vestnik Kavkaza – The situation in Europe is explosive and requires decisions to de-escalate it, Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergey Shoigu said at the Moscow Conference on International Security on Wednesday.
“As a whole, the situation in Europe is explosive and requires specific steps to de-escalate it. The Russian side has proposed a number of measures. For example, it put forward a proposal to move the areas of drills away from the contact line,” the defense chief said.
Another proposal is stipulated in Russia’s statement on a moratorium on the deployment of intermediate- and shorter-range missiles in Europe, Shoigu pointed out.
“These missiles pose a special danger for the population of European countries as they can be outfitted both with conventional and nuclear warheads. Their deployment in Europe will return the situation, when the Europeans were hostage to the confrontation between the USSR and the U.S.,” TASS cited him as saying..
Russia’s defense chief also reaffirmed Moscow’s readiness to implement transparency measures in order to restore trust and remove mutual concerns, in particular, on 9M729 missiles allegedly deployed in the Kaliningrad Region, and on MK-41 multi-mission launchers at U.S. missile shield bases in Romania and Poland.
It is also necessary to improve the legal framework for preventing incidents between the crews of aircraft and ships, the Russian defense chief stressed.
