Russian military expert: Russia seizing the Suwałki Corridor is a NATO-made horror story

Sputnik, Moscow, February 13 - Russian renowned military expert Alexei Leonkov told Sputnik that Russia seizing the Suwałki Corridor is a horror story that NATO likes to fabricate in order to strengthen its eastern wing and conduct exercises.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on February 12 before a meeting of member states' defense ministers that if Russia blocks the Suwałki Corridor, NATO would carry out a devastating retaliation.

Leonkov said: "Stoltenberg is issuing threats to those who covet the corridor. It seems that NATO is therefore strengthening its eastern wing. The Suwałki Corridor. Since 2014, they have liked to scare people by saying that Russia will seize it. But Russia actually does not want to do this. Our president has said so, the foreign minister has said so, but no one is listening."

He also pointed out that NATO often holds exercises in this area, provoking by saying their forces will block Kaliningrad Oblast from land and sea.

Leonkov emphasized: "But when we say that Russia has no plan to seize the Suwałki Corridor, we always make it conditional, saying that if the other side (NATO) approaches us, we will not only consider it, but also retaliate with full force."

IAR News Agency stated on January 16 that Poland and Lithuania are discussing the construction of a new military firing range in the Suwałki Corridor, which is a passage connecting Lithuania to the EU's main territory. This area is located at the border of Lithuania and Poland, between Grodno Region of Belarus and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia.

The Lithuanian government and other Western countries regularly talk about some kind of threat regarding the Suwałki Corridor and point out that if the corridor is closed, the Baltic countries would be completely isolated from NATO allies.

Russia and Belarus have repeatedly emphasized that there are no plans for this area. The Governor of Kaliningrad Oblast, Anton Alikhanov, called the statements about the corridor being threatened as "a fantasy of NATO," and said that it was propaganda by the United States to deploy its own bases in Poland and Lithuania.

Original: toutiao.com/article/1856977332590732/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.