His right hand warns of “serious negative consequences for the population of Lithuania” for blocking Russian goods
Amid new rumors about alleged discomfort and division in the Russian leadership due to the slow progress of the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin took advantage of a meeting in the Kremlin on Tuesday with graduates of Russian military academies in order to send a message of encouragement to its troops and announce the prompt entry into service of its most modern missile, the fearsome Sarmat.
“Tests of the Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile have been successfully carried out. It is planned that by the end of 2022 the first batch of this class of weapon will be in combat service,” Putin assured the very young officers. In his words, this atomic charge rocket, whose first test launch took place in April, “is capable of overcoming all modern anti-missile defenses, it is the most powerful missile in terms of target range in the world”, in Europe and USA.
The Russian president said he was proud of his Army. “We are proud that during the special military operation our combatants act bravely, professionally, like true heroes,” he stressed. He also promised that “in the face of new threats and risks, we will further develop and strengthen our Armed Forces.” “There is no doubt that we will be even stronger,” he stressed.
The Sarmat, also known as Satan II, has a range of 18,000 kilometers and can be loaded with multiple warheads. According to the Kremlin, “there will be no similar technology in the world for a long time.”
Meanwhile, President Putin’s right-hand man, the Secretary of the Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, arrived in Kaliningrad, a Russian territory to the north of Poland and also bordering Lithuania, which belonged to Germany until the end of World War II, to arrange the measures to be adopted in the face of Vilnius’ decision to veto rail transit to that enclave for certain goods.
Patrushev warned that Moscow “will react to these hostile actions. Appropriate measures are being worked out at interministerial level and will be adopted shortly.’ During a meeting with local authorities, the Kremlin envoy made it clear that Vilnius’ attitude “will have serious negative consequences for the population of Lithuania.”
After being summoned on Monday by the Russian Foreign Ministry, the charge d’affaires of the Lithuanian Embassy in Moscow, Virginia Umbrasiene, to receive a note of protest, this Tuesday the person summoned for the same purpose was the EU ambassador, Markus Ederer , which was also required that Brussels “allow the normal restoration of transit between Kaliningrad and the rest of the territory of the Russian Federation.”
According to the statement released on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Ederer was warned that “such actions are inadmissible, violate relevant legal and political commitments of the European Union and lead to an escalation of tension.” In the event that the restrictions are not lifted, it is noted, Russia will “take retaliatory measures.”
On June 17, Kaliningrad Governor Anton Alikhanov announced that “Lithuanian Railways notified Kaliningrad Railways that from June 18 a large list of goods subject to European sanctions would cease to transit.” According to Alikhanov, “the service cut-off applies to 40-50% of the entire range of cargo in transit: construction materials, cement, metals and other important items.”
But the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, asserted on Monday that it is not a unilateral measure of his country, but that it is “European sanctions that came into force on June 17 (…) we are doing it in coordination with the European Commission’. These restrictions were approved by Brussels on March 15 as part of the fourth package of sanctions.
The European ambassador was received on Tuesday by Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko, who reproached him for “the continued supply of weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces by the European Union and its member countries is unacceptable.” Rudenko said, according to the diplomatic statement, that such weapons “are used to bomb the civilian infrastructure and population centers of Donbass.” As a result of which, he added, “civilians and children are killed while the European Union ignores such facts.”
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