Medvedev’s threat to NATO
The former president of Russia has warned that “if NATO attacks Crimea, it will be a World War” and has opposed Ukraine’s entry into the Atlantic Alliance.
The current vice president of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, has reiterated his government’s claims that Crimea is part of Russia and warned that any attack against the peninsula, annexed in 2014, would be considered a declaration of war.
“Any attempt to seize Crimea would be a declaration of war on our country,” he said in an interview published this week by Argumenti and Fakti. “And if a NATO country does it, it would be a conflict with the entire Atlantic Alliance, World War III, a total catastrophe,” said Medvedev, who led the country as president between 2008 and 2012.
Medvedev issues stern Kalingrad warning
During the course of the interview Medvedev outlined the Russian government’s position on a number of topics, primarily related to the European community’s response to the invasion of Ukraine.
“The accession of Sweden and Finland do not pose any new threat to us. These countries have had quite cordial and respectful relations with Russia (...) and no territorial disputes or reasons for them are foreseen with them”, he stressed.
However the former president attacked the Lithuanian authorities for partially closing the transit through its territory to the region of Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave in the Baltic Sea. Medvedev noted: “Even the EU did not insist on this measure, understanding the problems involved. But Lithuania bowed its head to its American benefactors and once again exposed their idiotic Russophobic stances.”
Medvedev said that Moscow’s response to what he has called the “Kaliningrad blockade” will be very harsh.
“There are many possibilities, many of them economic, capable of cutting off the oxygen to our Baltic neighbors who have engaged in hostile actions against us,” he warned.
How long will the war last?
During a recent meeting of the UN Security Council the Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative, Dmitry Polyansky, asserted: “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will continue until they stop emanating threats from its territory and stop the bombardment of Donbass”.
The diplomat argued that the special operation in Ukraine began in order to stop the bombing of Donbass by Ukrainian forced. He claimed that Russia’s offensive in the region was designed to ensure “that the territory of this country, which has become anti-Russia at the suggestion of Western countries, as well as its nationalist leadership, ceased to pose a threat” to residents of southern and southeastern Ukraine and Russia.
“Until these goals are achieved, our operation will continue,” Dmitry Polyansky said.