In what could mark an escalation of tensions with the West, commercial satellite images suggest that Russia is moving a new generation of nuclear-capable missiles into Eastern Europe. Russia appears to be preparing to permanently base its Iskander missile system in Kaliningrad, a sliver of territory it controls along the Baltic coast between Lithuania and Poland. Arms control experts shared fresh satellite imagery with NPR, which they say provides evidence that the Iskander will soon be housed in the Russian-controlled enclave. The images show ground being cleared for tentlike shelters used at other Iskander bases, says Jeffrey Lewis , a nonproliferation expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies . "The pattern, and the size, and the location strongly suggest to us that this is the beginning phase of construction of the shelters for Iskander," Lewis says. Lewis and Finnish defense analyst Veli-Pekka Kivimäki, a doctoral student on open-source intelligence,
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