International security

NATO ambassador clarifies: 'I was not talking about preemptively striking Russia'

Russia should not fear a pre-emptive strike by the United States, a top American diplomat said hours after she threatened to destroy illicit Russian cruise missiles.

“I was not talking about preemptively striking Russia,” Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison, the U.S. representative to NATO, tweeted Tuesday. “My point: [Russia] needs to return to INF Treaty compliance or we will need to match its capabilities to protect US & NATO interests.”

That message moderates her earlier warning that the United States might feel compelled “to take out a missile that could hit any of our countries in Europe.” Russia has deployed ground-based, intermediate-range cruise missiles that have that capacity, according to Western officials, in violation of a 1987 arms-control deal. But Russia denies the accusation and replied with a quick rebuke.

"It seems that people who make such statements do not understand the degree of their responsibility and the danger of such aggressive rhetoric,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. “Who has this lady been authorized by to make such statements?”