MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax-AVN) - Accession of East European countries and the Baltic States into NATO will have a negative impact on regional stability, Colonel General Viktor Zavarzin, chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, said on Wednesday.
"For instance, should the NATO Air Force employ airfields of adjacent Baltic States, it would be capable of waging combat operations 1,600 km deep into the Russian air space," Zavarzin told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"Should it be the case, it would also reduce the time it takes missiles and aircraft to reach the Russian border, as well as increase capabilities of destroying targets, situated in western Russia. NATO tactical weapon systems will immediately become strategic ones," the general emphasized.
"At the same massive air strikes could be delivered against the whole of European Russia," he said. At the present time NATO tactical aviation can reach the Arkhangelsk-Kotlas-Nizhny Novgorod-Saratov line, Zavarzin noted.
He said that on accession of East European countries and the Baltic States into NATO, its combat force in Europe would increase by 13% with respect to personnel, 6% with regards to divisions, 53% insofar as certain brigades were concerned, 20% with respect to main ground weapon systems, and 12% with regards to combat aircraft and warships.
When Bulgaria and Romania join NATO, its superiority in the flanks will total 2,200 tanks, 3,300 armored vehicles, and over 2,000 artillery pieces, the general said.
According to him, employment of the territory and military installations of the Baltic States will allow NATO to increase the operational capacity of the theater of operations, reduce the time required for deploying forward units in the direct vicinity of Russia's western borders.
"In addition to that, the length of the Russian-NATO border will considerably increase, thus bringing the two powerful armed forces still closer. NATO employment of naval infrastructure will rob the Russian Baltic Fleet of maneuverability and block it in its naval bases. Russian units, deployed in the Kaliningrad Special Area, will practically be isolated within the NATO area of responsibility," Zavarzin said.