As of: February 5, 2024, 8:46 p.m
By: Patrick Mayer
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While Dmitri Medvedev, a confidant of Moscow autocrat Vladimir Putin, sees an escalation in the major NATO maneuver, Poland is preparing for a possible war with Russia.
Suwalken - While Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin wants to mobilize a large part of the Russian population, his confidant Dmitry Medvedev has lashed out at the defense alliance because of the major NATO exercise “Steadfast Defender 2024” and warned of a “big war”.
Dmitri Medvedev: Putin confidant threatens NATO over major maneuvers
“The forces assembled are considerable.
And exercises of this magnitude have not happened since the last century,” said Medvedev, according to consistent media reports on the Russian social network
VKontakte
, describing the maneuver between February and May as “a very dangerous game with fire.”
Medvedev, who was President of Russia between 2008 and 2012, threatened NATO directly.
“All sensible people in the West understand this. But if they act too harshly and damage the integrity of our country, they will immediately receive an appropriate response,” said the politician, who is considered polemical: “This will only mean one thing: a big war which NATO will no longer be able to turn its back on.”
Confidant of Vladimir Putin: Dmitri Medvedev (left), former President of Russia.
© IMAGO/Konstantin Zavrazhin
Before major NATO maneuvers in Russia's front yard: Putin confidant Dmitri Medvedev rumbles against the West
As the American news magazine
Newsweek
reports, Medvedev was quite harsh in his choice of words.
“Western politicians who have shit themselves and their mediocre generals in NATO have once again decided to scare us,” the 58-year-old wrote on social media.
Should a NATO member also provide airfields to Ukrainian troops in the Ukraine war, “they will certainly become a legitimate target for our armed forces and will be mercilessly destroyed as enemies,” he is quoted as saying: “All helmets with NATO symbols Those who today boastfully rattle their weapons not far from our borders should remember this.”
NATO maneuver “Steadfast Defender”: 90,000 soldiers, including 13,000 Germans
While Germany wants to equip the Ukrainians with Leopard 1 tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles for large units in the coming months, Medvedev and Russian diplomat Konstantin Gavrilov have also warned NATO against a military confrontation.
“These NATO exercises bring together 90,000 soldiers, officers and equipment.
The transfer of equipment takes place in the east direction, that is, it simulates the so-called defense of the Suwalki Corridor.
We call this a completely obvious provocation,” Gavrilov said, according to state news agency
Tass.
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The head of the Russian delegation at the negotiations in Vienna on military security and arms control within the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) went on to say: “Strengthening the alliance is not for defense, but actually to expand the possibilities for to test possible provocations against the Russian Federation.” The Suwalki Gap in question extends over 104 kilometers near the small Polish town of Suwalken between the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus, which is allied with the Kremlin.
The corridor on the Polish-Lithuanian border is considered NATO's Achilles heel.
Located between NATO states on the Baltic Sea: the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
© dpa/Graphic: A. Brühl, Editor: J. Schneider
Between Poland and Lithuania: NATO exercise to defend the Baltics
The fear: The Baltics could be cut off by land routes.
According to the Bundeswehr, “the focus is on multinational combat exercises in Poland and Lithuania, among others,” which suggests simulated battles around the Suwalki Corridor.
The German armed forces are providing 13,000 soldiers and dozens of Leopard 2 main battle tanks for the large-scale exercise.
The Bundeswehr writes on its website: “For the final exercise Grand Quadriga, from mid-May 2024, the 10th Panzer Division will be relocated from various locations in Germany by ship, rail and road march to Lithuania in order to defend and counterattack together with the alliance partners to practice alliance territory.”
For the final exercise Grand Quadriga, the 10th Panzer Division will be relocated from various locations in Germany to Lithuania by ship, rail and road march from mid-May 2024.
Statement from the German Bundeswehr on its website
Because of Norway, Sweden and Poland warn of possible war with Russia
In view of ongoing threats from Moscow, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has declared that his country - a German neighbor - no longer rules out the threat of war with Russia.
Poland must prepare for such a war, he said in an interview with the daily
Super Express
.
His ministry has already begun concrete preparatory steps.
Before Poland, Sweden and Norway had already no longer ruled out a possible Russian attack on NATO territory.
Norwegian commander Eirik Kristoffersen warned his compatriots against such a scenario in an interview published on January 23rd: “We are running out of time,” the 54-year-old military man told the newspaper
Dagbladet
: “There is now a window of opportunity that may be a “It will take two, maybe three years, during which we will have to invest even more in secure defense.”
(pm)