The Kremlin has warned that Lithuania's decision to lift a constitutional ban on deploying nuclear weapons on its territory could lead to a new round of escalation in the region, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The Lithuanian parliament on Monday supported the first of two necessary votes to amend the constitution. It would lift a ban on deploying nuclear weapons in the country.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would be forced to take measures to protect its own security if nuclear weapons were deployed on Lithuanian territory. The same would apply to the establishment of a permanent US military base in Lithuania, as Vilnius has requested from Washington.
At the same time, the Kremlin rejected warnings from the head of German foreign intelligence, Martin Jaeger, about the growing risk of Germany being drawn into direct conflict with Russia. Moscow described these warnings as unfounded and an attempt to justify defense spending.
Jaeger said yesterday that the danger of direct conflict is increasing. He also accused Russia of intensifying its increasingly aggressive “shadow war” against European democracies.