Russian lawmakers commented on an idea put forth by Chinese website Eastday.com suggesting that NATO would be able to seize Russia’s Kaliningrad region in just 48 hours.
Major General Du Wenlong, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) strategist, is quoted as saying that in the event of a major military conflict in Europe, NATO would be able to seize Kaliningrad, which he described as “not a big place.” Kaliningrad is an exclave of the Russian Federation located on the Baltic Sea between Lithuanian and Poland.
Russian lawmaker Sergei Tsekov commented on Du’s remark, recalling that during World War II the Nazis planned to seize the Crimean capital of Sevastopol in a matter of days, but became stuck for 10 months.
“If someone gets this idea – although I doubt that would ever happen – they’re not getting a quick victory,” he said.
Another lawmaker, Vladimir Lukin, said he doesn’t envy those tasked with creating imaginary military scenarios.
“There is freedom of expression, of course, but there’s also an English saying: ‘let thy words be worth more than silence,’” Lukin said.
Alexei Pushkov called a projected 2-day takeover of Kaliningrad a “delirious scenario.”
“NATO has no chances of seizing Kaliningrad without a risk of a large-scale conflict. I’m sure people in NATO understand this,” he tweeted, adding that media publications like Eastday are fuelled by the itch of someone in the US to make war.
Есть ощущение, что кому-то в США чертовски хочется повоевать. Отсюда и постоянное обсуждение сценариев с захватом НАТО Калининграда. Любителям бредовых сценариев надо успокоиться: у НАТО нет шансов захватить Калининград, не рискуя крупным конфликтом. Уверен: в НАТО это понимают.
— Алексей Пушков (@Alexey_Pushkov) November 10, 2019
The piece came in the wake of another report by one R.D. Hooker of the Jamestown Foundation, who suggested in October that NATO should immediately take Kaliningrad in the event of military hostilities between Russia and Europe. Commenting on that report, Kaliningrad regional governor Anton Alikhanov suggested that Hooker be given the Hugo award, awarded annually for best science fiction story.
Earlier in September, commander of the US Air Forces in Europe and Africa, Gen. Jeffrey Lee Harrigian, announced that the Pentagon had a plan for defeating Kaliningrad’s air defence system. The Russian Ministry of Defence described Harrigian’s faith in his plan “naive,” adding that making sabre-rattling statements out loud is “concerning.”
