Russian Deputy Prime Minister Boasts: U.S. Can’t Stop Our Nukes

(CNSNews.com) – Russia’s deputy prime minister boasted on Sunday that the U.S. could not stop a Russian nuclear attack due to what he claims are breakthroughs in his nation’s “combat missile technologies,” the Moscow Timesreported.

“We will not disclose those technical details to anybody,” Dmitry Rogozin is quoted as saying during a televised talk show on Russia’s state-run Rossiya channel.

“But I can tell you one thing: The work conducted today on combat missile technologies … shows that neither the current, nor even the projected American missile defense system could stop or cast doubt on Russia's strategic missile potential,” Rogozin said.

The Russian’s saber-rattling came just a week before members of NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group are scheduled to meet in Brussels on February 5th.

“I can confirm that there will be a regular meeting of the Nuclear Planning Group next week during the Defence Ministerial,” a NATO official told CNSNews.com. “But we never comment on the content of those planning group meetings.”

However, there is speculation in Europe that the talks will include the increasing intrusion of Russian bombers into NATO's Baltic airspace.

"Alliance fighter jets while patrolling Baltic airspace made more than 150 flights in 2014, or four times more than in the previous year, to [intercept] Russian fighter bombers," according to Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, a German newspaper.

Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergie Larov also told the Interfax news agency that Moscow had every right to deploy nuclear weapons in the Crimea, which it annexed last March.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a thumbs up as he watches a launch of Angara-A5 rocket booster in Moscow on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014. (AP Photo)

In September, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was developing a new series of offensive nuclear and conventional weapons that could penetrate any missile defense shield and would provide his country with a "guaranteed nuclear deterrent."

Putin also accused NATO and the U.S. of becoming "hysterical" over what he called Russia's "countermeasures to ensure our security."

In 2009, President Obama abandoned plans by the Bush administration to install anti-ballistic missile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic after Russian officials strenuously objected.

Since then, "Russia's relations with the West have plunged to their lowest point since the Cold War due to Russia's role in the crisis in Ukraine," the Associated Press reported.