Foreign Ministry: closing the Baltic Sea to Russia will lead to its closing for everyone
Closing the Baltic Sea for Russia would mean closing it for everyone, and NATO understands this, says Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko.
According to him, the Baltic will never turn into an internal sea of the North Atlantic Alliance. Grushko called politicians who use such figures of speech lightweight.
I think that those people who make decisions in NATO and military strategists understand perfectly well that closing the Baltic Sea to Russia means closing the Baltic Sea to everyone
The State Duma announced its readiness for countermeasures in the event of a closure of the Baltic Sea
In addition to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the initiative was also commented on in the State Duma. Deputy Dmitry Novikov, in a conversation with Lenta.ru, said that Moscow reserves the right to retaliate if access to the Baltic Sea is limited, since such a step would be a violation of international conventions governing shipping.
If some countries follow the path of violating conventions that determine the order of navigation in the Baltic, the general availability of water use for those countries that are in this zone, and Russia is one of them, then any state has the right to countermeasures. This is an interdependent process
He added that the Russian Foreign Ministry is trying to explain to the country’s partners and opponents that any unlawful actions will be fraught with retaliatory measures.
“Their ability to use water will also be limited,” Novikov warned.
The President of Latvia allowed the closure of the Baltic Sea to Russia
The corresponding statements were a reaction to statements by Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics, who stated that the Baltic Sea could be closed to Russian ships. He emphasized that such a decision depends on the results of the investigation into damage to the infrastructure on the Balticconnector gas pipeline.
If some kind of responsibility is confirmed by Russia or another country – well, it is unlikely that another country… I would say that, in my opinion, the issue will be discussed that we close the Baltic Sea to all Russian ships
So far, such discussions are not being held, since concrete results of the investigation need to wait for conclusions, the president noted. He clarified that at the moment the appropriate step is to strengthen patrolling of the Baltic by NATO forces.
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Finnish police have identified a suspect in the Balticconnector incident
Earlier, the Finnish police reported that the damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline was probably caused by the ship Newnew Polar Bear, sailing under the flag of Hong Kong.
The sequence of events is established based on evidence and data, and the damage is believed to have been caused by the Newnew Polar Bear, a Hong Kong-flagged vessel.
Finnish police also noted that these observations and vessel traffic data confirmed the main line of investigation regarding the role of the Chinese shipping company’s Newnew Polar Bear in the incident.
Finnish police spokesman Risto Lohi stated that the version of Russian involvement in the damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline was excluded from the main ones and is not being considered. He added that the Finnish side “will not speculate” on the topic of Russia’s possible participation.
On October 8, the gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was closed due to a gas leak. Finland later stated that the cause of the leak was presumably due to external influences.
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