Russia: US missiles in Germany signal return of the Cold War | NATO News

Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomes the plan and says it has “a certain deterrent effect and ensures peace.”

The US decision to station long-range missiles in Germany could lead to a Cold War-style “direct confrontation”, Russia warned, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed the move.

The White House announced the decision on Wednesday during a NATO summit in Washington, arguing that the deployment of long-range weapons, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, in Europe would have a deterrent effect.

“We are taking steady steps towards the Cold War,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Russian state television reporter on Thursday.

“All the attributes of the Cold War with direct confrontation are returning.”

Washington’s move has drawn criticism in Germany, even among members of Scholz’s Social Democrats.

Scholz defended the decision, telling reporters at a NATO summit in Washington that it was “a form of deterrence and peacekeeping, and it is a necessary and important decision at the right time.”

The United States said on Wednesday that the “episodic deployment” of long-range missiles to Germany will begin in 2026.

The White House announced that it was aiming for a permanent stationing of these missiles in Germany in the long term. The missiles would have “a considerably greater range” than the current US systems in Europe.

“The exercise of these advanced capabilities will demonstrate the United States’ commitment to NATO and its contribution to integrated European deterrence,” said a joint statement with the German government.

The Russian ambassador to Germany warned the German government against a further deterioration of relations between Moscow and Berlin if the deployment were to take place.

“It is to be hoped that the German political elite will think again about whether such a destructive and dangerous step, which contributes neither to the security of the Federal Republic of Germany nor to the European continent as a whole, is advisable,” said Sergei Nechayev.

“Not to mention the irreparable damage to German-Russian relations.”

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told Deutschlandfunk that the stationing decision addressed a “very serious gap” in the country’s capabilities.

The Bundeswehr does not have long-range missiles that can be launched from the ground, but only cruise missiles that can be fired from aircraft.

The announcement sparked an outcry in Germany, where the stationing of American missiles evokes painful memories of the Cold War.

Ralf Stegner, a member of the Bundestag representing Scholz’s Social Democrats, told the Funke Media Group that the missile decision could be the signal for a new “arms race”.

“This will not make the world safer. On the contrary, we are entering a spiral in which the world is becoming increasingly dangerous,” warned Stegner.

Sahra Wagenknecht, a prominent left-wing extremist figure in Germany, told the weekly magazine Spiegel that the stationing of American missiles “increases the risk that Germany itself will become a theater of war.”

The stationing of American Pershing II missiles in the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1980s, at the height of the Cold War, triggered large-scale demonstrations in which hundreds of thousands of people took part in pacifist protests.

Even after German reunification and until the 1990s, US missiles remained stationed.

But after the end of the Cold War, the United States significantly reduced the number of missiles stationed in Europe as the threat from Moscow diminished.

NATO countries – especially the United States – are rushing to strengthen their defenses on the continent following Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022.