27 Mar 2019 13:00

Kremlin declines to comment on India's trials of anti-satellite missile

MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) - The Kremlin has directed to military specialists a question on whether India's trials of anti-satellite weapons might threaten Russian security.

"That's a question you need to ask military specialists. This is not an area for the presidential administration," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the press on Wednesday.

Journalists asked Peskov to comment on foreign media reports citing U.S. intelligence, which said that Russia had successfully tested a similar weapon in January 2019. "Ask U.S. intelligence. They'll explain what they mean," he said.

The trial held on Wednesday successfully destroyed a satellite placed in a low, near-Earth orbit at an altitude of 300 kilometers, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his address to the nation.

India became the fourth country after the United States, Russia, and China to test anti-satellite weapons.