Lithuania's Deployment of US Missile Systems May Create Threat for Russia

Lithuania's possible deployment of US Patriot missile systems on a long-term basis may prove harmful for Russia and create an additional threat to the nation's security, the Russian Embassy in Lithuania said Friday.

VILNIUS (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.

"While intimidating the [Lithuanian] population with an ‘aggressive Kremlin,’ Vilnius is apparently willing to let foreign weapons and troops to be deployed on the territory of Lithuania on an permanent and long-term basis, something which could potentially harm Russia and create, as they say, an additional threat to its security by proxy… We are convinced that this simple course is not in the interests of this Baltic country,"  the statement on the embassy’s official website reads.

The embassy added, in a comment to Sputnik, that no other potential diplomatic steps on this issue were being considered.

Patriot is a surface-to-air missile defense system equipped with radars, command-and-control technology and multiple types of interceptors. The system is able to detect, identify and defeat tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones, advanced aircraft and other threats.