A key Russian defense politician says the deployment of US naval infantrymen at Værnes is part of a US buildup to achieve a “global blitz.”
‘This is very dangerous for Norway and Norwegians’, said Frants Klintsevitsj of the Defence Committee in the Federation Council in Moscow, in an interview with TV2.
Klintsevitsj is considered an influential defense politician in Russia.
He believes the United States has pushed the Norwegian government to accept an American deployment at Værnes.
‘USA is building an infrastructure – it is part of their build-up to gain the opportunity to start a global blitz. This worries us enormously’, he said.
The Russian Defense politician believes the development is so serious that Norway might be placed on the Russian list of atomic goals in case of war.
‘We have never before put Norway on the list of objectives for strategic weapons. But if this is allowed to develop, Norway’s population will suffer, because we have to react to defined military threats’, he said.
On several occasions, Russia has criticized the deployment of 330 US troops at Værnes. Defence Minister, Ine Eriksen Søreide, rejected last week’s criticisms.
‘There is no objective reason for the Russians to react to this. But the Russians react at the moment in the same way to everything NATO countries are doing’, said Søreide to the news agency NTB.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
