Russian state television has broadcast a list of US military facilities that it claimed Moscow would target in the event of a nuclear strike.
The development comes just days after President Vladimir Putin’s annual address to parliament during which he said Russia would retaliate if Washington deployed any missiles in Europe.
The targets named by the TV report included the Pentagon and the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland.
In the Sunday evening broadcast, Dmitry Kiselyov, presenter of Russia’s main weekly TV news show “Vesti Nedeli”, showed a map of the United States and identified several targets he claimed Moscow would want to hit in the event of a nuclear war.
The targets, which Kiselyov described as US presidential or military command centres, also included Fort Ritchie, a military training centre in Maryland closed in 1998; McClellan, a US Air Force base in California closed in 2001; and Jim Creek, a naval communications base in Washington state.
In language that observers say was unusual, Kiselyov, known for his close relationship with the Kremlin, said Russia has hypersonic missiles that could hit the targets in less than five minutes if they were launched from Russian submarines.
In his address to lawmakers, Putin said Moscow was militarily ready for a “Cuban Missile”-style crisis if the US wanted one.
Russia fears that Washington might deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe as a Cold War-era arms-control treaty unravels.
