YEKATERINBURG, September 15. /TASS/. Russia will respond accordingly if Lithuania moves to deploy nuclear weapons on its territory, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on the sidelines of the International Youth Festival.
"Everything they come up with there that threatens us will be taken into due account," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman stressed.
"As for the autumn session of the Lithuanian Seimas [on amending legislation to allow the deployment of foreign nuclear weapons - TASS], this is a completely irresponsible act, and I can't say what will come of it. These steps are in line with the extremely provocative and destabilizing anti-Russian policy of NATO countries, which does not take into account what the people of Lithuania want at all, but simply treats Lithuania as a bridgehead, as another platform for possible provocations, because all this involves the escalation and development of various schemes and machinations of so-called extended nuclear deterrence. This leads to the buildup and expansion of the combined NATO-wide nuclear potential, which will, of course, pose a challenge to our country," the diplomat said. "We directly responded to this policy by placing Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons in Belarus, which we now regard as an integral element of ensuring the security and strengthening the defense capability of the Union State."
