"If Russia attacks NATO, Kaliningrad will be wiped out and Suwalki Corridor will cease to exist," - Pabriks
Putin’s nuclear threats over the ‘isolation’ of Kaliningrad amount to blackmail.
This was stated by Artis Pabriks, Latvia’s former Minister of Defence, in an interview with Censor.NET.
What is known?
"Putin and others there understand very well the mood in Western Europe, where people want to carry on living as before, want to live well, and do not want to think about war and problems. But, on the other hand, I can also imagine how the armed forces in these countries think, and how the institutions in these states think: they have a more or less accurate understanding of what Russia wants.
"The question is how and when to respond to this. Because the problem was that Western states have consistently responded very mildly to the operations that Russia has carried out and continues to carry out on the territory of these states," he explained.
Pabriks believes that if Russia were to decide to start a war against the Baltic states, the first region to find itself in a very, very difficult situation would be Kaliningrad.
"We have always assumed that, if such a war were to break out, Russia would cut off the Suwałki Corridor. But somehow we don’t consider the possibility that, if Russia were to attack, Königsberg would be the first to be overrun. And then there would be no Suwałki Corridor left."
By NATO forces. That includes Poland, Lithuania and all the others. And an enclave like that (Kaliningrad – ed.) cannot exist on its own. And I think that is precisely what Putin was alluding to. He said: ‘You know, if anything happens, don’t even think about attacking Königsberg’," added the former minister.
Read and watch the interview with Artis Pabriks via the link.
What led up to this
- On 30 September, Reuters reported that Russia had sent NATO a written warning that it was prepared to use nuclear weapons should the Alliance attempt to isolate the Kaliningrad region from Russian territory. The North Atlantic Alliance responded by stating that it was not threatening Moscow and regarded the letter as an attempt at intimidation.
- NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, responding to Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons should the Kaliningrad region be cut off, stated that he did not take such allegations "too seriously".
- For his part, Nikolai Patrushev, an aide to the Russian dictator, stated that if NATO were to attempt to put its "threats" regarding the Kaliningrad region into practice, Russia’s response would be "appropriate and swift", and the Alliance would "regret its actions".
- Subsequently, Putin stated that the letter from the Russian Foreign Ministry to NATO regarding the Kaliningrad region "made no mention of nuclear weapons", but that the "entire arsenal of Russian weapons" would be deployed in the event of a direct attack.
