Russia seen putting new nuclear-capable missiles along NATO border by 2019

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with members of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and foreign investors in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 16, 2016. REUTERS/Grigory Dukor

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is likely to deploy advanced nuclear-capable missiles in its European exclave of Kaliningrad by 2019, casting the move as a reply to a U.S.-backed missile shield, and may one day put them in Crimea too, sources close to its military predict.

That would fuel what is already the worst standoff between Russia and the West since the Cold War and put a swathe of territory in NATO members Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in the cross-hairs.