Russia-Lithuania tension, Vilnius wants Kaliningrad back and Moscow threatens

Russia, attacking Lithuania after the claims of Vilnius, ‘dusts off’ Josef Stalin and the Red Army to respond to the words of the Baltic president Gitanas Nauseda.

The Kremlin in fact, through the spokesperson Dimitry Peskov, accused the Lithuanian president of maintaining a “hostile” attitude towards Moscow and making “territorial claims” towards of the Russian exclave of Kaliningradwhich the president defined as “originally Lithuanian”, raising the possibility that Russia would “return” it.

The Russian attack

At a press conference from Moscow, Peskov defined Vilnius as “unfriendly and hostile”, an attitude that “justifies” the measures adopted by Russia to “guarantee its security”. Even the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharovaattacked Nauseda, calling him a “cardboard doll” who “vents his historical fantasies”, inviting him to “study a bit of history”, after having assured that the Russian exclave is part of the historical region that was part of Prussia and then East Prussia and where the Prussian Lithuanians lived.

Zakharova called on Lithuanian diplomats and politicians to “pay attention to the economy and respect human rights.” “They worry about an identity of which almost nothing remains after decades of independence – his words reported by Tass -, it is thanks to Josef Stalin if the capital of Lithuania is Vilnius and not Kaunas“.

“I remind you that Lithuania’s largest port in the Baltic was finally renamed from Memel to Klaipeda, which became Lithuanian in 1945 thanks to the selfless action of the Red Army“, he concluded, condemning the demolition of monuments honoring the soldiers.

What Vilnius said

Lithuania is among the countries that have provided, in proportion to available resources, the greatest support to Ukraine in the war against Russia, which has been ongoing for almost 3 years.

Nauseda had stated that Kaliningrad is part of the historical region and is, therefore, an “originally Lithuanian” city. In this sense he recalled that the Russian region does not exist as such and raised the possibility that Moscow “returns” it. “

The original inhabitants of Lithuania Minor, now part of the so-called Kaliningrad region, have long disappeared; it is necessary to preserve the last vestiges of Lithuanian culture there. No matter how hard Russia tries, Karaliaucius will never become Kaliningrad“, his words.