Moscow - The State Duma has said that Russia can adequately respond to the transfer of U.S. armaments from Afghanistan to Ukraine by considering the delivery of Russian military hardware to Donbas.
“This is a very dangerous step that will inevitably lead to the escalation of
violence in southeast Ukraine,” leader of the Russian Union of Afghan War
Veterans and member of the State Duma Defense Committee Franz Klintsevich said
to the press on Sunday commenting on U.S. intentions expressed by President
Barack Obama to transfer to Ukraine all the military hardware stationed in
Afghanistan.
He said that if the decision is implemented, the situation in Afghanistan and
the whole of Central Asia will change fundamentally and “not for the better” and
that the president of Afghanistan has expressed his sharply negative attitude to
the U.S. initiative.
Klintsevich stressed that it is not too late to stop today. In this context
he said that he is directly addressing the U.S. president “with a persistent
request to weigh up everything once again and think of the consequences that the
step will have.”
It will be extremely difficult, if not impossible to reverse it, he added.
“Otherwise we will suggest that President Vladimir Putin take a reply step,” he
warned.
“Using all my possibilities as the deputy of four latest convocations I will
initiate a special message of the State Duma to the president of Russia to
decide on deliveries of Russian military equipment to the [self-proclaimed]
Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics,” he said.
He said that this would be an extreme and forced decision.
