FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Putin Tells Media, We Do Not Want a New Cuban Missile Crisis, But We Are Ready If It Comes

Feb. 22, 2018 (EIRNS)—In response to questions from Russian news media following his Feb. 20, nationally televised presentation to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin clarified exactly what he meant when he said that Russia would target decision-making centers of the United States and NATO should America, in the aftermath of the cancellation of the INF Treaty, place nuclear missiles in Europe. In response to a question as to whether or not this meant that Russia would now target Washington and Brussels if it believed that such decisions were being made there, he said that Russia now has the weapons to do this, referring to the ship-based Zirkon hypersonic missile, and can do it from neutral waters. “Nobody can prohibit warships and submarines from navigating in neutral waters,” he said.

“Plus, they will not be stationary, they will be on the go, making it more difficult to detect them. It cannot be very difficult to detect them, but it will not be very easy either. So, make your calculations. At a speed of Mach 9, these missiles can strike a target more than 1,000 km away. Under the Law of the Sea, the exclusive economic zone is defined at some 400 km or 200 miles. Do the maths. The distance of 1,000 km at Mach 9. How soon, in how many minutes can these weapons reach their targets? This is it.”

According to EIR’s rough calculation, that’s a flight time of about 6 minutes.

Putin repeated that the flight time for missiles based in Europe to reach Moscow is about 10-12 minutes.

“The calculation is not in their favor, at least, not today. This is obvious,” he said. “If they create threats to us, they should be aware of the potential consequences, so that they will not accuse us of unnecessary aggressiveness or whatever later.”

However, Putin stressed that this can be all avoided. “There are joint mechanisms and instruments for dealing with these problems,” he said. “I hope they will be used to prevent a new global crises such as the Cuban missile crisis. There are no reasons for this, no reasons for aggravating the international situation to this level.”

The situation today is not like the Cold War, Putin continued. “Yes, we do have mutual complaints and different approaches to problems, and the complaints are mutual,” he said.

“But this is no reason for aggravating this to the level of the Cuban missile crisis of the 1960s. Anyway, I think we do not want this. If somebody else wants this, they can do it. I have said today what will follow. Let them make their calculations.”