Kremlin wants to station “half-baked missiles” in Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

A short- range missile, the Iskander-M, is one of the newest solutions of Russian military-industrial complex. At the same time, military men admit that this novelty is deathful for missilemen themselves.

“Iskander” and cruise missile R-500 are to become the asymmetrical response to any missile shield in Eastern Europe or Transcaucasia. As reported by Salidarnasts with a reference to The New Times, the Kremlin has given that to understand that if necessary, new complexes would be located in Belarus as well.

However, according to statements of Russian military experts who preferred to stay anonymous, Iskander is unfinished. The real situation could be imagined by frank remarks of the Rocket troops and artillery Commander, General-colonel Vladimir Zaritski. In one of the interviews he said: “There were certain problems in the controlling system. Time is needed for improvement of all systems. The complex is to be refined, exploitation issues are to be improved”.

“While General-colonel speaks about “some problems”, it means the weapon is not mission-capable: missiles fly in a wrong manner and in a wrong direction,” told well-informed sources in Defense Ministry. “Exploitation problems? In our language it means that launching is hazardous for missilemen!”

“The term almost forgotten from Soviet era, “arms race”, returns into our vocabulary. “However it was hard to imagine in the USSR that “unfinished” missiles, dangerous for missilemen themselves, could be used,” told a military expert Syarhei Aniska to Salidarnasts.

However, it looks as the story of Iskander hadn’t been invented for intimidating the West, but as a PR action for internal Russian use. In the run-up to the presidential election one of the contenders for the highest position, Sergei Ivanov, wants to show that the Russian army had reached fabulous success under his command. And so far it is mainly associated with private Sychov, who was hazed, and whose both legs were amputated after tortures by his fellow soldiers and a sergeant.

While with all today’s chill in relations between the West and Russia, military activities seem unlikely, the Kremlin can make “unfinished missile” operational and even deploy it in Belarus. If nobody is going to fire the missile, nothing would happen. But a traditional Russian blind trust in sheer luck looks too risky in the situation with Iskander. And in the first place, it is risky for our country.