© Reuters. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attend a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the State Union of Russia and Belarus at the Kremlin in Moscow on April 6, 2023. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentiev/Cr
By Jay Faulconbridge
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia on Saturday rejected criticism from U.S. President Joe Biden over Moscow’s plan to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, saying Washington had decades ago stationed such nuclear weapons in Europe.
Russia said on Thursday it was moving ahead with the first such weapons deployment outside its borders since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said the weapons were already on the move.
Biden said on Friday that he reacted “very negatively” to reports that Russia had moved ahead with a plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. The US State Department denounced Russia’s nuclear proliferation plan.
“It is the sovereign right of Russia and Belarus to ensure their security by the means we deem necessary amidst a large-scale mixed war waged by Washington against us,” Russia’s embassy in the United States said in a statement.
The measures we are taking are fully consistent with our international legal obligations.”
The United States has said the world faces the gravest nuclear threat since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis because of President Vladimir Putin’s statements during the conflict in Ukraine, but Moscow says its position has been misinterpreted.
Putin, who has described the Ukraine war as a battle for Russia’s survival against an aggressive West, has repeatedly warned that Russia, which has more nuclear weapons than any other country, will use all means to defend itself.
Tactical nuclear weapons are used for tactical gains on the battlefield, and are usually smaller in yield than strategic nuclear weapons designed to destroy American, European, or Russian cities.
The Russian embassy called US criticism of Moscow’s planned deployment hypocritical, saying that “before blaming others, Washington could use some introspection.”
“The United States has for decades maintained a large arsenal of its nuclear weapons in Europe. It participates with its NATO allies in nuclear sharing arrangements and rehearses scenarios of using nuclear weapons against our country.”
The United States has deployed nuclear weapons in Western Europe since US President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized their deployment in the Cold War to counter a perceived threat from the Soviet Union. The first US nuclear weapons were deployed in Europe in Britain in 1954.
Much detail has been classified about the current US deployment, although the Federation of American Scientists says the US has 100 B61 tactical nuclear weapons deployed in Europe – in Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands.