The decision on the placement of Iskander in the Kaliningrad region has not yet been made

The decision on the placement of Iskander-M missile systems in the Kaliningrad region has not yet been made, President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference. “We haven’t made such a decision yet. Let them calm down,” Putin said.

The President noted that missile systems are a response to European missile defense, and not the most effective and not the only one. Iskander is not the only way of our protection and reaction to the threats that we see around us. Iskander is only one of the elements of a possible answer, far from the most effective, although in his segment this is the most effective weapon in the world, ”Putin said.

Putin noted that Russia's representatives "have talked many times about what about the threat to us, the threat of our nuclear potential."

“One way or another we will have to respond to this. And my predecessor still spoke about this - as one of the options for responding to the Proxer complexes in the Kaliningrad region. There is nothing new here,” the president said.

The day before, the Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu said that Iskander-M will be placed where the country's leadership would consider necessary . “Recently, a big noise rose that we were putting the Iskander somewhere in the wrong place. In the territory of the Russian Federation we want, we put it there,” the Minister of Defense said. In addition, according to him, Russia has something to respond to Europrop. “We don’t sit just like that, we don’t look. Our science, designers and factories, believe me, work very effectively. And the weapon that the Russian army possesses, it is powerful, mobile and effectively. We have something to answer,” Shoigu said.

The minister urged not to believe the rumors that Russia is weak and nothing could. “Believe me, this is not true,” he said.

Earlier it was reported that the operational and tactical missile systems "Iskander-M" are adopted by units of the Southern and Western Military District . The placement of these missiles in the Kaliningrad region contradicts Russia's statements about the desire for a close dialogue and cooperation with the EU and NATO, say on Tuesday adviser to the President of Lithuania on international politics Mindaugas Zhichkus.

“We informed Russia about the concern of her neighbors with information about the deployment of Iskander missile in Kaliningrad. We called on Moscow not to take steps leading to destabilization in the region,” the representative of the US State Department Marie Harf said at a briefing on Monday.

On Monday, the head of the press service and information of the Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said that the Iskander missile divisions are not contrary to any international agreements . Thus, the department first commented on the information that appeared in the German media about the placement of Iskander in the Kaliningrad region.

Moscow extremely nervously reacts to the US intentions to deploy a missile defense system in Europe. The Russian authorities believe that this can violate nuclear parity. In January 2012, in the election speech dedicated to the international situation, Putin cited the problem of as an example of the United States to cooperate in equal terms with other countries.

In February, the Russian Permanent Representative of NATO, Alexander Grushko, said that the lack of consent in the field of missile defense between Russia on the one hand, both Europe and the United States on the other, could negatively affect the cooperation of Russia and NATO in all other areas. "Everyone has an understanding that the issue of the pro is a key that determines for the very quality of the interaction of Russia and NATO," he said.

The American side has repeatedly stated that the Europrop system was not directed against Russia. In October 2011, US Tosher's deputy Secretary of State for Arms and International Security, US Tosher's readiness to give written guarantees about this. "The proceedings that we create in Europe are not directed against Russia. We talked about this in publicly and in closed negotiations, at many levels. We are ready to fix this position on paper," the deputy community said.