Several NATO members were placed on alert today as Vladimir Putin visited a tiny Russian exclave, seemingly playing on Europe’s fears of World War 3.
The Russian President travelled to Kaliningrad, the exclave overlooking the Baltic Sea wedged between Poland and Lithuania, on Thursday.
Putin’s presidential plane remained in international waters, but flew dangerously close to Finland, the Baltic region and Sweden’s Gotland island before arriving in the Russian region.
During Putin’s trip, a NATO military A330-243MRTT reconnaissance plane from the Netherlands Air Force was reportedly seen circling over the Baltic Sea.
Speaking about the visit to the exclave, Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Putin was sending a message to NATO, saying: “This is not a message to NATO countries when the president visits the regions of the Russian Federation. It is not a message to NATO countries.
“This is the main thing that the president does, and the main thing is not to send messages but what he has been doing for many years, working on the development of our country, our regions, developing the economy.
“The project of economic development of individual regions will be in the meeting on the development of Kaliningrad today.”
The Russian President, who had last visited Kaliningrad in September 2022, toured the Kant Baltic Federal University and signed a commemorative note during the trip.
Given it is sandwiched between two NATO members, Kaliningrad is seen as a possible key battleground in a conflict between the Western military alliance and Russia.
A military report by the German Armed Forces envisioning how Russia could spark World War 3 mentioned the mobilisation of troops and medium-range missiles to Kaliningrad as one of Putin’s key steps ahead of an attack on NATO’s eastern flank.
Germany isn’t the only nation to have voiced concerns over Russia’s increased danger to the safety of the continent.
