Moscow: Lithuania Promotes Escalation in Region With Patriot System Claims

Lithuania’s claims on the reasonability of deployment of the Patriot missile systems in the Baltic region evidence its intention to escalate the tensions in the region and near Russia’s borders, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's department for arms control, Mikhail Ulyanov, told Sputnik on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Thursday, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said that Patriot systems would be beneficial for the Baltic region, especially with regard to ensuring security while visiting NATO’s Tobruq Legacy 2017 military exercises held in northern Lithuania's city of Siauliai.

"Such statement evidences Vilnius continuing its policy towards escalation of tensions and building up arms, which are not even their own, but belonging to third parties, in the immediate vicinity of Russian borders," Ulyanov said.

According to the Russian official, it is not clear how the move can contribute to the increase in security in the Baltic region, the effect from "implementing such calls would be the opposite."

"In international relations, including the military sector, for every action there is equal and opposite reaction," Ulyanov added.

On July 7, the US deployed Patriot missiles in Lithuania for the first time to patricipate in the Tobruq Legacy drills.