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TASHKENT. April 13 (Interfax) - U.S. missile defense facilities in Europe may be used for placement of offensive weapons, including cruise missiles with nuclear warheads, which creates a direct threat to Russia's security, Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Yevgeny Lukyanov told Interfax in Tashkent on Wednesday.
"Launch systems in the missile defense system in Romania and Poland will be capable of launching both counter-missiles for destroying our ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. And it's already offensive weapons, which can carry nuclear warheads," Lukyanov said.
"It's a clear threat and direct danger to us," he said.
"The placement of a missile defense system near our borders is a direct consequence of breached promises, simple deceit that NATO will not be expanding eastward," Lukyanov said.
"These, as they are trying to present to us, non-strategic forces essentially pose considerable threat to our strategic nuclear forces," he said.