2024-02-15 23:16:48
(CNN) — On Thursday, a war of words broke out between the US administration and the Russian government due to the announcement by the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee of the US House of Representatives, Mike Turner, on Wednesday, that… Moscow is working to develop a nuclear anti-satellite weapon, and Turner described this step as a “serious threat” to America’s national security..
The White House confirmed for the first time the statements of the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and US National Security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the United States had been aware of Russia’s pursuit of anti-satellite capabilities for “several months, if not a few years.”
He added that only in recent weeks, intelligence “was able to reach an assessment of Russia’s efforts in this regard, and President Joe Biden has been informed of this since the beginning of his term.”
He refused to go into details regarding the nature of the capabilities, including whether it was a nuclear weapon or a nuclear-powered device.
He added that “there is no direct threat to the safety of Americans,” and that these capabilities have not yet been deployed.
Kirby described Russia’s pursuit of this technology as “troubling” and stated that Biden had directed measures to be taken to deal with this issue, including briefing members of Congress and “direct diplomatic engagement” with Moscow, in response to the threat.
He said the US intelligence community had “serious concerns” regarding the widespread declassification of intelligence related to this threat, and said that “private information sharing” would be more effective in dealing with the issue.
On the other hand, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that reports of Russia’s efforts to develop anti-satellite capabilities are a “hoax,” and added that they “aim to encourage Congress to vote on a draft law to allocate funds to Ukraine,” according to the Reuters news agency.
The White House responded to the Kremlin’s statements, with John Kirby telling reporters when he was asked to respond to the Russian statements that it was “nonsense.”
He stated that the United States is still in the process of communicating with Russia to hold talks on this issue, and when he was asked whether revealing this threat might make this communication process more difficult between the two countries, he responded by saying: “We have to see,” and he denied that the American administration would She gave Turner the green light to reveal this information.
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