The United States is not capable of defending against Russia's nuclear weapons due to Russia's development of unspecified breakthroughs in military technology, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said this week, reported The Moscow Times.
"We will not disclose those technical details to anybody," Rogozin said during a televised talk show on Russia's state-run Rossiya, according to Interfax news agency.
"But I can tell you one thing: The work conducted today on combat missile technologies ... shows that neither the current, nor even the projected American missile defense system could stop or cast doubt on Russia's strategic missile potential," said Rogozin, who oversees Russia's military-industrial complex.
The comments indicate a reversal from previous views held by Rogozin during his 2009 to 2011 tenure as Russia's ambassador to the U.S.-led NATO alliance, when he insistently warned that U.S. missile defense programs posed a serious threat to Russian security.
In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country is developing an arsenal of new nuclear and conventional weapons to counter recent moves made by Western forces, reported The Associated Press.
According to Putin, the efforts to modernize its weapons are merely "countermeasures to ensure our security" and provide a "guaranteed nuclear deterrent."
Relations between the U.S. and Russia are currently at the lowest levels since the Cold War - largely due to Moscow's perceived involvement in the Ukrainian crisis, in which Russia is said to be covertly arming the pro-Russian rebels fighting against Ukrainian President Poroshenko's regime.
NATO's Nuclear Planning Group is scheduled to hold a meeting in Brussels on February 5.
A NATO official told CNSNews, "I can confirm that there will be a regular meeting of the Nuclear Planning Group next week during the Defence Ministerial, but we never comment on the content of those planning group meetings."
