Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin talking during 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings at Benouville Castle, France. Regis Duvignau / Reuters
Putin 'Privately Threatened To Invade Poland, Romania And The Baltic States' -- The Telegraph
German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung reports that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told European Commission that Putin made the threat in a recent conversation.
President Vladimir Putin privately threatened to invade Poland, Romania and the Baltic states, according to a record of a conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart.
"If I wanted, in two days I could have Russian troops not only in Kiev, but also in Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Warsaw and Bucharest," Mr Putin allegedly told President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine, reported Süddeustche Zeitung, a German newspaper.
If true, this would be the first time that Mr Putin has threatened to invade Nato or EU members. Any threat to send Russian troops into the capitals of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Romania would cause grave alarm among Western leaders.
Read more ....
Update #1: EU silent on reported Putin threat against east Europe -- AFP
Update #2: Putin's Bullying Gets Scarier and Subtler -- Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg
My Comment: This threat is similar to the one that EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Putin made a few weeks ago in a telephone conversation .... but it should be noted that those remarks were then "clarified" by Moscow a few days later .... Kremlin Official: Putin's 'I Can Take Kiev In Two Weeks' Remark Was Taken Out Of Context.
Now .... according to a German source .....Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is saying the same thing (but expanded to include the Baltics and Poland) .... an accusation that he apparently made after having a meeting with the same EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso who accused Putin of making the remark that he could "take Kiev in two weeks". Consider me skeptical .... but this is an incredibly serious accusation .... and considering the gravity of it all I am hopeful that more information is released soon (like a taped record of the conversation) .... rather than just hearsay.
7 comments:
Drag out the smelling salts! Of course it was a threat, but the controlling phrase is "If I wanted".
"If I wanted" .... in that context .... yup .... a definite threat. But does he want it .... I do not think so (at least I hope not).
The language of foreign diplomacy and nuances .... I will give Putin credit on this .... he is a master of it and the West is not positioned or knowledgeable enough to counter it (so far).
"the West is not positioned or knowledgeable enough to counter it (so far)"
Many years in the future, children will gather around their elders who will recite to them in hushed tones the history of the great teleprompter war.
This is bad news, cold war rethoric and I hope this never will happen, since it would be a catastrophic war. Is there a risk of these threats being a reality in the future or is everything going to stabilise to "the god times" like before the Crimea thing happened?
Rhaegar,
That's something you're yet to learn, nothing ever goes back to what it was, ever.
The only way he takes Warsaw in 2 days is to use nukes
....and if he uses nukes....the only russians alive, will be the ones in warsaw. Lets hope this never has to be proven....one way or the other
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