MOSCOW. Sept 15 (Interfax) - The ongoing missile launches by North Korea are being used as an excuse for the arms race heating up near Russian borders, Alexander Sherin, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, told Interfax on Friday.
"Every time North Korea launches something, it provides an excuse for the intensifying arms race and additional allocations from the U.S. budget," Sherin said.
"The United States would have had no reason to station a large group of forces near Russian borders if it were not for a hotbed of tensions in the form of North Korea," he said.
"But as it is, there is Ukraine, which enables the United States to perform exercises in the Black Sea, and there is a similar situation on the other side of our borders," he said.
"North Korea should not forget that Russia is a principal neighbor," Sherin added.
He also believes that sanctions against North Korea, which are tightened after every missile launch, will have no effect whatsoever.
"No sanctions have ever impacted the elites or the leadership of any country. Whenever sanctions are imposed on any state, the only ones who are suffering are the people, who actually have nothing to do with the cause of the sanctions. The people do not make the final call," he said.
"It is absurd to think that North Korea can do any damage with a missile," Sherin said in addition.
"In the theoretical case of North Korea using a nuclear bomb, it will be destroyed in mid-air by the systems that are already in place in South Korean territory," he said.