Russian general says Poland open to nuclear strike

Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces"

A senior Russian general warned Poland today that it was leaving itself open to retaliation - and possibly even a nuclear strike - by agreeing to host a US missile base.

General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the Russian armed forces' deputy chief of staff, issued the extraordinary threat in an interview with Interfax, a Russian news agency.

“Poland, by deploying [the system] is exposing itself to a strike - 100 per cent,” he was quoted as saying, before explaining that Russian military doctrine sanctioned the use of nuclear weapons “against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them”. [snip]

Donald Tusk, the Polish Prime Minister, hinted that the US had pledged to back Warsaw in the event of Russian aggression towards Poland. He said that he only agreed to host the US defence shield on the condition that the US agreed to help augment Poland’s defences with Patriot missiles, which are intended to ward off any threat from Russia.

“We have crossed the Rubicon,” he said after agreeing the landmark deal after more than 18 months of negotiations. In the past few days, Polish leaders told a domestic audience that the fighting in Georgia has justified Warsaw’s willingness to form such a significant alliance with the US.

[this is only the latest threat to go nuclear: last year Russia threatened to re-target it's ICBM on Europe should a missile defense system be deployed {again, a system, designed to defend against 'rogue players' {say: Iran}, which is unquestionably incapable of thwarting mass flights of missiles such as Russia is capable}

Q: if Europe is willing not to stand on this point, how can anyone expect anything meaningful go come from them re: anything else? ]

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