Source: CNN
Russian President Vladmir Putin has issued a stern warning against NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) saying his country’s military will retaliate against NATO missiles after the U.S launched a ground-based missile defense system earlier this month in Romania, a country very close to Russia.
The U.S claim the missile system is meant to defend Europe against rogue states like Iran and not intended to target Moscow’s missiles but Putin says he will do anything to protect his country and it’s security forces even if it mean’s retaliating against NATO.
NATO, said the missiles could not be used offensively as they don’t include explosives and are designed to simply “punch” targets out of the sky and have slammed Putin’s threats calling it ‘unjustified and irresponsible’.
Putin issued his threat during a news conference Friday after meeting with Greek Prime Minister Aleksis Tsipras in Athens.
“If yesterday in those areas of Romania people simply didn’t know what it means to be in the cross hairs, then today we will be forced to carry out certain measures to ensure our security,” Putin said.
“Any threats from Russia are unjustified and irresponsible,” said NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu. “Russia knows full well that our Ballistic Missile Defense system is defensive and neither designed nor directed against Russia.”
“It will be the same case with Poland,” Putin warned. “We will wait until Poland takes certain action. We won’t take any action until we see rockets in areas that neighbor us.”
Military officials in the U.S are taking Putin’s threats seriously, as the Russian president is one who never goes back on his threats.
“I don’t think he wants to get into an armed confrontation with NATO,” Military analyst Lt. Col. Rick Francona (ret.) told CNN.
“but of course Washington has to look at this. He is a very maniacal personality and we’re not quite sure how he’s going to react to this.”
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an intergovernmental military alliance that constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. NATO currently has 28 member countries namely Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, United States, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, Hungary,Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia,Albania and Croatia. A Russian retaliation against NATO will likely cause a World War 3.
