MOSCOW, December 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is in the process of withdrawing almost all its tanks from the Kaliningrad exclave, which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania, the chief of the General Staff said on Wednesday.
The withdrawal of almost 900 tanks began in January this year, General of the Army Nikolai Makarov told a meeting of foreign military attaches in Moscow.
"We had 880 tanks in the Kaliningrad Region, and we are pulling virtually all of them out," he said.
Makarov said, however, that the withdrawal could take several years as the tanks are to be transported by sea after Lithuania denied Russia permission to allow the hardware to be moved by rail through the Baltic country.
The general said this unilateral move clearly demonstrates that Russia has no plans to attack other countries and is not pursuing an expansionist policy.
"However, we have always opposed NATO's eastward expansion because it poses serious threats to Russia," Makarov said.
The army chief reiterated that Russia would take adequate measures to protect its national interests, if Washington does not abandon its controversial plans to place elements of the U.S. global missile shield in Europe.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev earlier threatened to deploy Iskander-M short-range missiles in the Kaliningrad exclave, if the U.S. missile shield was deployed in Central Europe.
However, Medvedev subsequently said in an interview with France's Figaro newspaper that Russia could "reconsider this response if the new U.S. administration is ready to once again review and analyze all the consequences of its decisions to deploy the missiles and radar facilities."
Makarov also expressed hope on Wednesday that Russia and NATO would eventually reach an agreement on the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, which the alliance considers as a cornerstone of Euro-Atlantic Security.
Russia imposed a unilateral moratorium on the treaty in December 2007 amid concerns over U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Central Europe, as well as NATO's ongoing expansion.
Moscow considers the original CFE treaty, signed in December 1990 by 16 NATO countries and six Warsaw Pact members, to be discriminatory and outdated since it does not reflect the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc, the breakup of the Soviet Union, or recent NATO expansion.
Russia has repeatedly said it will resume its participation in the CFE if NATO countries ratify the adapted version of the treaty, signed on November 19, 1999 and so far ratified only by Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
