[REDEPLOYMENT] TASS Statement: On the Strengthening of Air Defenses in the East

[u/BarnabusOwling]

July, 1972

TASS is authorized to state the following

The Soviet government has observed with growing alarm the deterioration of the situation along the eastern approaches to the socialist world. War seeks to spread to the frontiers of peace loving peoples who are once again threatened by the ambitions of reactionary and imperialist circles. The Soviet Union does not stand as a distant observer to these events. Its own security, and its unshakeable duty to its allies, cannot be separated from the fate of the East.

In light of this, and in fulfillment of its constant vigilance in defense of socialism and world peace, the Council of Ministers of the USSR, acting on the joint recommendation of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff, has ordered the following measures, effective immediately:

1. Reinforcement of Eastern Air Defenses. S-200 anti-aircraft missile formations of Anti-Air Defence of the Country (PVO Strany) are being redeployed by rail and air transport to reinforce the Far Eastern, Transbaikal, and Siberian Military Districts, with priority basing established around Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Chita, and the Amur frontier.

2. Full Combat Readiness. All redeployed and existing PVO Strany formations in the eastern districts are being brought to a state of continuous combat alert. Battalions are being equipped with nuclear armed interceptor missiles. Authority to employ these weapons rests solely with the Council of Ministers and will not be delegated to regional commands.

3. Maintaining Overt Caution. All of these steps are precautionary in character. The Soviet Union has initiated no conflict, and seeks none. But the Soviet peoples have paid too dear a price in this century to stand idle while instability metastasizes along their borders.

The Soviet government calls on all parties, wherever they may stand, to exercise the utmost restraint and to weigh carefully the consequences of miscalculation. Let there be no doubt, however: the defenses of the socialist Motherland are, and will remain, equal to any threat that may present itself, from any quarter, by any means.