The launch of a key nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad region has reportedly been delayed due to licensing issues, according to the facility’s press secretary.

The plant, which is due to be ready in 2016, is meant to cement Russia's dominance as an energy supplier in the Baltic states.

Rumors that the plant is on the verge of opening hit the Internet on January 25, along with reports of the formation of a military unit to be placed near Kaliningrad, armed with the new Iskander-M tactical missile system.

The first Iskander division was expected to be put on combat duty in the Kaliningrad Region in the second half of this year. Before then, the military had planned to deploy air defense assets to the region in the form of the S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems.

“This project is targeted at the Baltic states, Germany and maybe even Scandinavia,” Vasily Konuzin, director of Ifc Alemar’s analytical department, told RT. “Kaliningrad currently has enough energy, but the Baltic plant is more of a strategic decision. There is strong competition from Belarus and Lithuania.”

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the deployment of Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad region is a response to the deployment of the European missile-defense system, and is a sheer waste of money.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said that Rasmussen had failed to mention the cause-effect relationship.

"If NATO did not create a missile-defense system that is capable of weakening Russian strategic potential, there would be no need for us to take precautionary measures, including those of a military-technical nature," he said.