MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin's warning about the capabilities of the newest Russian weapons has fallen on attentive ears in Europe, Russia’s ambassador to Belgium, Alexander Tokovinin, has said on the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
"I reckon that the Russian president's warning has been heard here (in Europe - TASS). Almost all leading newspapers have written about it," he said, when asked about Putin's statement, which concerned Russia's possible response to the introduction of Western countries’ contingents in Ukraine.
Tokovinin stressed that Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo was very serious about the Russian president's words and that Brussels was not going to have a direct clash with Russia. However, according to the diplomat, the prime minister's statements do not mean the policy of escalation and confrontation has been abandoned.
"But the message was driven home," he concluded.
In his address to the Federal Assembly on February 29 Putin commented on Western leaders' statements about the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine. Putin said that Russia had weapons capable of hitting targets in Western countries. He recalled some of the consequences for participants in incursions into Russia in the past and warned that today the impact on the intruders "would be far more tragic."