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Anti-missile system deployment in Poland and Eastern European nations, air bases in former Warsaw pact nations Romania and Bulgaria, and expansion of the North Atlantic Treat Organization (NATO) is prompting Russia to deploy advanced defense systems.
Russia and Belarus are deploying 4 S-300PS surface-to-air missile batteries and 24 missile launchers extending Russia’s western air defense by 150 kilometers (km) and detection of air targets by 400 km. The S-300PS is an all-altitude air defense missile capable of shooting down aircraft, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles within a range of 90 km.
Close allies Belarus and Russia are planning to joint command and view the inclusion of Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia into NATO with great suspicion. Russia says that deployment of NATO conventional forces in Poland and Baltic countries is a violation of 1997 Russia-NATO pact.
Belarus is violently anti-US and its leader Alexander Lukashenko won his third term in office calling the US “the last dictator of Europe.” |
