Poland urged to demilitarize and rename Kaliningrad

Former Deputy Minister of Defense of Poland, military expert Romuald Sheremetyev called for the demilitarization and renaming of Russian Kaliningrad. His words are quoted by DoRzeczy.

According to the military expert, the demilitarization and renaming of the city must be carried out if Finland and Sweden join NATO. He expressed the opinion that this would strengthen the eastern flank of the alliance, since both countries have “decent armies.” “Moreover, in such a system, the Baltic Sea will become a NATO sea,” he added.

Later, Sheremetyev’s statement was commented on by the governor of the Kaliningrad region Anton Alikhanov. He suggested that there was a “war for Kaczynski’s political legacy” in Poland. “And there, in my opinion, there is such a competition between President Duda, Prime Minister Morawiecki and all sorts of other retired generals,” he said. According to Alikhanov, Warsaw’s rhetoric may change as soon as the country feels the absence of Russian gas, coal and other tactically necessary goods.

Finland and Sweden aspire to join NATO

Finland and Sweden officially announced their intention to join NATO on 15 May. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin called the decision historic. In turn, Stockholm said they would work to ensure that the country entered into an alliance with reservations against the deployment of nuclear weapons and permanent military bases on its territory.

Finnish President Sauli Niiniste said Russian leader Vladimir Putin had “remarkably calmly” reacted to the country’s desire to join NATO. According to him, the conversation with the President of Russia was very calm and cold-blooded. He stressed that he did not hear from him threats against Finland, which were made by other Russian politicians.

At the same time, Svetlana Zhurova, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, said that Helsinki’s decision to become a NATO member was predictable, but not independent. Now Moscow will strengthen the control of its borders, she is sure. The head of the Federation Council Committee on Defense, Viktor Bondarev, also said that if Finland joins NATO, Russia will strengthen the grouping of troops on the border with this country.

strategic region

The Kaliningrad region can become one of the most important territories in the face of rising tensions between NATO and Russia, journalists from the Canadian edition of The Globe and Mail are sure. In their opinion, on the one hand, the exclave located between Poland and the Baltic countries can become one of the most vulnerable regions. At the same time, it can be seen as the Russian avant-garde in the heart of Europe.

So, at the moment, the Baltic Fleet of Russia is based in Kaliningrad. In addition, there are modern weapons in the region. Journalists considered the Suwalki corridor, a part of the territory of Poland and Lithuania that separates Kaliningrad from Moscow’s ally Belarus, to be one of the most important areas for the Russian forces. They suggested that NATO needed to increase the security of the corridor, but not to provoke tensions and escalation.

In turn, Professor of International Security at the University of Birmingham Stefan Wolf called Kaliningrad an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” that undermines NATO forces in Northern Europe. According to him, the exclave expands Russia’s influence and creates a “security umbrella”.

Prior to this, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Sergei Ordzhonikidze said that the new naval base of the Russian fleet in the Kaliningrad region was Moscow’s strategic response to NATO’s approach to its borders. According to him, any naval base performs two main functions: guarding the borders that are part of the country’s zone of interests, and possible retaliatory strikes in the event of any aggression. In particular, the base will also ensure the entry of Russian large-tonnage warships.