LIPNO ISLAND, Novgorod region. Sept 20 (Interfax) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has dismissed a remark by a U.S. military official on the existence of plans to overpower Russia's missile defenses in the Kaliningrad region and suggested that Washington should pay attention to the efficiency of its own missile defense systems that failed to protect Saudi Arabian oil facilities.
"On the one hand, not every stupid remark by American generals is worth commenting on. But when such things happen, you feel urged to tell our partners: They'd do better to take care of their own business and to look at what happens, for example, to their missile defenses and those missile defense systems that are manufactured by the United States," Medvedev said in reply to a question from Interfax.
Medvedev commented thus on media reports referring to Commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa Jeffrey Lee Harrigian as saying that the U.S. Department of Defense has a plan enabling it to "take down" Russian missile defenses in the Kaliningrad region in case of aggression on Russia's part.
The Russian prime minister mentioned "the latest incident involving Saudi Aramco oil facilities, in which, despite the presence of missile defenses and Patriot launchers [...] those facilities were destroyed, making the situation on the oil market very complicated."
"It seems to me this is what they should be taking care of instead of trying to formulate some silly ideas that have no chance of being implemented," he said.