Russia is moving its nuclear-capable missiles closer to the heart of the West to be able to hit Western cities within the range of over 720 kilometers.
If the nuclear-capable Iskander missiles are launched from Kaliningrad, Russia’s enclave bordering Poland and Lithuania, Moscow could easily destroy Berlin (~510 km), Hamburg (~670 km) and other major cities of Germany.
It also means that Russia will now be capable of destroying Denmark’s Copenhagen (~490 km), Sweden’s Stockholm (~515 km) and burning the entire territory of Poland to the ground.
And while the United States is far away from Kaliningrad (unless Russia launches missiles from its Cuban bases, read below), it sure seems like Americans, who are about to elect their new President, are worried about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear plans.
What’s on Putin’s mind – war or peace?
The Iskander missiles have long been up Putin’s sleeve and Russian officials have threatened the West with the nuclear-capable missiles over the past two years. But Moscow is finally making the move, now that their defense ministry confirmed sending the Iskander missiles closer to the border with the West.
The news comes just several days after Germany’s foreign minister, whose country faces the greatest risk from the missiles, warned that tensions between Russia and the West are “more dangerous” today compared to the Cold War era.
Steinmeier, who has been interacting with Russia’s top-ranking officials since he was elected Germany’s foreign minister in 2013 and has seen it all (Russia’s annexation of Crimea, invading troops into Ukraine and killing civilians there, launching airstrikes in Syria and killing civilians there), sure knows what’s on Putin’s mind right now.
“It’s a fallacy to think that this is like the Cold War. The current times are different and more dangerous,” Steinmeier told Bild newspaper. “This danger has not been as strong in decades and the confidence between West and East has never been so low.”
Steinmeier added that he has been keeping an eye on the crumbling relations between the West and Russia with dismay.
Are we actually on the brink of World War 3?
Relations between the West and Russia have reached its lowest since a truce they agreed on last month collapsed within a week, and now the U.S. is accusing Russia of staging “war crimes” in the Syrian city of Aleppo, where over 250,000 civilians are facing deadly bombing on everyday basis.
In September, Russian-backed Syrian government launched an offensive to retake Aleppo, and it sure seems like Russia is going all-in: to retake the city with the people there alive or dead.
NATO defense ministers will discuss Russia’s wrongdoings in Syria as well as Moscow’s recent decision to deploy Iskander nuclear-capable missiles to the Polish border during a meeting on October 26-27 in Brussels.
Although NATO meetings are usually useless and don’t stop Putin even a bit, at least the Alliance is acknowledging the fact that Russia is getting closer to Western borders with its every move.
Last week, Russia’s Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper predicted that the tensions between Russia and the West in Syria could lead either to World War 3 or something similar to the Cuban Missile Crisis, according to the International Business Times.
The newspaper suggested that if the Americans do what they wanted to do “for a long time” and strike against Syria’s government army “on purpose and openly,” Russia would unleash a World War 3.
“Russia can win big in Syria but it can also lose big too. We must not forget that in Syria we are playing an astonishingly risky game,” the newspaper noted.
Putin, who wholeheartedly believes in his mission to oppose the U.S. missile defense shield in Europe, would surely not hold back his actions anymore and would engage in a direct confrontation against American soldiers in Syria.
Russia warns citizens to ‘prepare for war’
Just last week, Russia warned the U.S. about its potential all-out nuclear attack after the U.S. cut talks with Putin over his deadly bombings in Syria. To prove Russia’s might, Putin’s officials said they now have nuclear bunkers capable of holding 12 million people.
If the reports are true, it means Russia is dead-serious about preparing for an imminent nuclear strike against the United States.
Reports also indicate that Putin’s ministers warned its citizens to “prepare for war” as they held massive military defense drills involving over 40 million people.
But that’s not Putin’s only actions that indicate he’s preparing for an all-out nuclear mission against the world, as Russia has recently moved its naval power into Vietnam and intensified its bomber patrols around the U.S. border.
Nuclear Putin will make Trump or Clinton his Toy
Earlier this month, Russia announced its intentions to reopen Cuban bases from the Cold War era.
The problem with those bases is that they sit just 90 miles (~145 km) from the U.S. border. And since Russia has Iskander nuclear-capable missiles (which are – for now – stationed in Kaliningrad) it’ll be capable to launch nuclear strikes on U.S. if it sends those Iskanders to its newly reopened Cuban bases.
If the U.S. allows Russia to operate on its Cold War-era military bases in Cuba, it could face a deadly risk from Putin, who has proved that he is able to sneak in his military hardware without the world even noticing it.
If that happens and Putin indeed moves his Iskander nuclear-powered missiles just 145 km from the U.S. border, he may as well start calling himself the king of the world and turn the United States with its newly-elected president, whether it’s Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, into his toy.
And while that scenario suggests that Putin couldn’t care less who would be the next president of the U.S., the Russian President still takes precautions.
Russia has recently been blamed by the U.S. for hacking the Democratic National Committee and about twenty American voter registration databases in an attempt to influence the presidential vote in the U.S. on November 8.
But with his nuclear-powered Iskanders pointed at Washington D.C. and the White House, it sure seems it would make no difference for Mr. Putin to make either Trump or Clinton take his orders.
