MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/. Nuclear weapons will not appear on Lithuanian territory in the near future, despite the decision by the Seimas (parliament) to lift the ban on their deployment, Ruslan Pankratov, a member of the Officers of Russia expert council, deputy chairman of the Union of Political Emigrants of Europe, and a former deputy of the Riga City Council has said.
On September 22, the Lithuanian Seimas approved lifting the ban on the deployment of nuclear weapons within the country. Following a discussion of the issue, the parliament referred a constitutional amendment to the relevant committees for review.
"There is a vast, if not enormous, gap between repealing Article 137 and the actual arrival of nuclear weapons on Lithuanian soil. Decisions to deploy nuclear warheads would require specific consent from the US and NATO, military infrastructure, specialized security and storage procedures, and would entail significant political costs," Pankratov said.
In his opinion, such decisions amount to an "ostentatious demonstration of Lithuania's readiness for the closest possible military-political integration with NATO."
Pankratov also emphasized that the practical value of deploying nuclear warheads in Lithuania for NATO is quite limited.
"The alliance is unlikely to rush the deployment of nuclear weapons right on the Russian and Belarusian borders, as this would sharply increase the risk of actual - rather than merely rhetorical - escalation for its domestic electorate," he explained.
