Kremlin says Lithuanian minister’s comments about attacking Russian exclave ‘verge on insanity’
MOSCOW, May 20 (Reuters) – The Kremlin criticized the remarks of Lithuania’s top diplomat as “on the verge of insanity” on Wednesday after Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said NATO needed to show Moscow that it could enter Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave.
Kaliningrad is an exclave sandwiched between NATO members Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic coast. It has a population of around 1 million and is heavily militarized and serves as the headquarters of Russia’s Baltic Fleet.
Budrys, whose country is a staunch ally of Ukraine against Russia, said in an interview with the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung on Monday: “We must show the Russians that we are capable of penetrating the small fortress they have built in Kaliningrad. NATO has the capacity to destroy Russian air defenses and missile bases there if necessary.”
Asked about his comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state television on Wednesday that the statement showed how reckless politicians in the Baltic countries are and that they should not be taken seriously.
“This statement is on the verge of insanity,” Peskov said
“Unfortunately, you know the Baltic states, they are really maniacally anti-Russian. This anti-Russian feeling blinds them, prevents them from thinking about the future and prevents them from doing what is in the interests of these countries,” he said.
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II and then incorporated into the Soviet Union before gaining independence when the USSR collapsed in 1991. Moscow says Soviet forces liberated three countries from the Nazis. The Baltic states say they have simply replaced one occupier with another and eliminated many traces of their Soviet past.
Russia has accused the West in the past of wanting to isolate Kaliningrad. President Vladimir Putin warned in December against any moves to blockade the outer region, saying Moscow would resist and risk “large-scale conflict.”
Lithuanian lawmakers were forced to take shelter underground on Wednesday and air traffic at Vilnius airport was temporarily suspended after a drone violated the country’s airspace, the latest in a series of security incidents in the Baltic region.
Moscow has expressed concerns that Ukrainian drones could use Baltic airspace to launch attacks against targets inside Russia; this claim was rejected by Kyiv and the three Baltic states.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn, Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
