Dispute over Putin exclave intensifies - Russia politicians openly threaten NATO state Lithuania with attack

Created: 06/29/2022, 18:18

By: Patrick Mayer

Viktor Astapov (left), Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, speaks to soldiers of the Baltic Fleet in Kaliningrad.

© Vitaly Nevar/TASS/dpa

The Kremlin and Lithuania are arguing about free transit traffic to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea.

A Moscow politician attacks the NATO state and a Bundeswehr general warns.

Munich/Kaliningrad - Threatening gestures from Moscow are nothing new in the Russia-Ukraine war.

The transatlantic defense alliance NATO is reacting decisively, expanding its rapid reaction force (NATO Response Force, NRF) from the current 40,000 to 300,000 soldiers with the prominent participation of the German Bundeswehr.

Ukraine war: Between Bavaria and Italy - NATO forces deterrence against Russia

Meanwhile, the national armed forces are practicing diligently for emergencies - quite obviously.

A low-flying Luftwaffe Eurofighter caused a stir in Selb, Bavaria (Upper Franconia).

Tourists on southern Lake Garda were recently able to watch low-flying fighter jets over a cup of café americano - there was a thunderous sound with the focaccia.

Explanation: Lake Garda, popular with German tourists, is geographically located between the Lombard military airfield Ghedi near Brescia, where Italian Tornado are stationed, and the US Air Force's Aviano Air Base in Veneto.

Meanwhile, NATO is concerned about its summit in Madrid (29/30 June) above all about a small land corridor in the Baltic States on the Baltic Sea: the Suwalki Gap, which runs between Vladimir Putin's partner Belarus in the east and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad in the west forms a nearly 100-kilometer-long border between the NATO states of Poland and Lithuania.

In the video: Compact - The most important news about the Russia-Ukraine war

This is exactly where the commander of the Bundeswehr Operations Command, Bernd Schütt, sees the greatest danger of a military escalation between NATO and Russia.

Striking: The border strip in question is only around 130 kilometers southwest of the Lithuanian city of Rukla, where 1,100 Bundeswehr soldiers are stationed as part of the so-called Battlegroup "Enhanced Forward Presence".

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) recently assured the government in Vilnius that he would double the German contingent.

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Located between NATO states on the Baltic Sea: the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

© dpa/Graphic: A. Brühl, Editor: J. Schneider

Russia's Kaliningrad exclave: danger of escalation with NATO in the Suwalki gap

Lieutenant General Schütt now told the

that in the area of ​​the Suwalki gap the danger of NATO's defense capability being tested is quite high.

Recently, the security situation in the region had deteriorated drastically.

The reason is the naval base of the Russian Baltic Fleet in neighboring Kaliningrad.

How many Russian soldiers are stationed there is unclear.

Lithuania recently stopped the transit of goods on the European Union (EU) sanctions list through its territory.

This includes cement, other building materials and metal, but also alcohol and cigarettes.

According to Kaliningrad Governor Anton Alikhanov, 40 to 50 percent of goods traffic between Russia and Kaliningrad will be affected.

This provoked fierce criticism in Moscow.

Sanctions against Kaliningrad: Russia threatens NATO and Lithuania

A member of parliament now followed up harshly.

“A military presence must be established on the border with Belarus - in Kaliningrad.

It already exists and is ready to fight," Duma politician Andrei Gurulev said in a propaganda program on Russian state television.

and

report on this

.

"Those who wave their Article 5 in the air should roll it up and tuck them in their butts," Gurullev said.

It's our territory and we will decide what to bring into it.”

Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad used to be called Königsberg and had been the royal capital and royal residence in Prussia since 1724 and the capital of the Prussian province of East Prussia until the end of the Second World War in May 1945.

With the conquest by the "Red Army" the port city on the Baltic Sea fell from Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union.

In 1946 the city was renamed Kaliningrad.

After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the region remained with Russia as an exclave outside the core state territory.

Today, 430,000 people live in the city itself and around a million people in the oblast of the same name.

Because of the EU sanctions?

Many freight wagons stand on the tracks of the freight station in Kaliningrad.

© Uncredited/AP/dpa

Article 5 regulates the alliance case of NATO, should a member of the military alliance be attacked.

Gurulev is fuming as Kaliningrad Oblast comes under economic pressure.

As the news portal

reports, citing a

article, Kaliningrad imported goods worth 6.5 billion euros between January and September 2021, while exporting goods worth 1.8 billion euros.

The report refers to unnamed local business people, according to which the sanctions in the construction industry are hitting the region particularly hard.

Sanctions against Kaliningrad: Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania under pressure

Meduza

also quotes Oleg Chernov, the general director of the Baltic Metallurgical Cluster, according to whom 80 percent of the metals have so far been delivered to the region by rail.

Kaliningrad now has to be supplied with said goods via the Baltic Sea, which is likely to lead to significant price increases.

Meanwhile, the small exclave between Poland, Lithuania and Belarus remains a major risk militarily.