Vladimir Putin must correct an ‘historical mistake’ by Lenin and Stalin, according to reservist tank commander Major-General Nikolay Plotnikov.
He warned on state TV of the Kremlin invading three cities with substantial Russian links and populations that were formerly part of the Romanov tsarist empire and the USSR.
The cities are Narva in Estonia, Daugavpils in Latvia, and Klaipeda in Lithuania.
All the three Baltic republics are inside the Western defence alliance of NATO.
Tank commander Plotnikov, now a political scientist and associate professor at the propagandist Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow, told Putin-controlled state TV: ‘Younger colleagues told me it is time to correct the historical injustice perpetrated by Vladimir Lenin, when the Russian Empire collapsed, and [Soviet dictator] Josef Stalin.’
Vladimir Putin must correct an ‘historical mistake’ by Lenin and Stalin, according to reservist tank commander Major-General Nikolay Plotnikov (pictured)
He crudely warned the three Baltic republics to stop offering support to Ukraine or face the consequences
Latvia bolsters their border defence against Russia
This amounted to a demand to ‘bring back into Russia Narva [Estonia], Dvinsk, now known as Daugavpils [Latvia] and Memel, now known as Klaipeda [Lithuania]’.
He crudely warned the three Baltic republics to stop offering support to Ukraine or face the consequences.
‘I would therefore tell all these [Baltic people] not to stir up trouble,’ said Plotnikov.
‘Or else our people will bring this question up [concerning an invasion of NATO territory to subjugate the three cities].’
Such a move would trigger NATO ‘article 5’ under which an armed attack on one Alliance state is considered a strike against all members, leading to unified action against the aggressor.
But the Baltic countries and Poland intend to send their troops to help Ukraine if the Russian military can achieve significant successes at the front, according to authoritative German news outlet Der Spiegel.
The four states are not intending to ‘sit and wait until the Russians have to be met at their borders’, says a message transmitted to the Berlin government.
The Baltic republics have been boosting their land defences against Russia.
Major-General Nikolay Plotnikov warned on state TV of the Kremlin invading Daugavpils in Latvia
Latvian soldiers at the border with Russia
Soldiers at a Latvian border defence against Russia
Major-General Nikolay Plotnikov also mentioned Narva in Estonia
The city of Narva is at the eastern extreme point in Estonia and borders Russia
Klaipeda is a port city in Lithuania
This threat to three NATO cities came as ex-president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, warned that a US response attacking Putin’s territory in the event Moscow used battlefield nuclear weapons in Ukraine would trigger World War Three.
‘The Americans hitting our targets means starting a world war,’ he stated on X, formerly Twitter.
NATO countries would be reduced to ‘radioactive ash’, he said.