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Conflict in Syria

Russian MP blasts Hassadjek airstrike as Western intervention

Russian lawmaker Leonid Kalashmikov believes NATO countries "should be punched in the teeth, otherwise they won’t understand anything"

Belgian pilot in F-16 fighter AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert

Belgian pilot in F-16 fighter

© AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. Russian lawmaker Leonid Kalashnikov has called the airstrikes on civilian targets in the Aleppo district of Hassadjek an intervention.

"NATO members, Belgium in this case, are used to easily violating international laws… This is a clear provocation and an intervention by Belgium," Kalashnikov, the head of Russia’s State Duma (lower house of parliament) Committee for Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Ties with Compatriots, said on Wednesday referring to the air raid where some Belgian war planes were recorded in the area.

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According to Kalashnikov, acts like this are "historically hardwired measures, but they [NATO] should be punched in the teeth, otherwise they won’t understand anything." "When I spoke about weapons-grade plutonium, this is exactly what I meant, if their actions are not opposed, they won’t understand that what they are doing is wrong. If we didn’t have nuclear weapons, we would have ended up like Yugoslavia," the MP added.

"I am glad the Duma is going to suspend the plutonium-disposal treaty [with the US] today, and later it maybe be repealed," Kalashnikov noted. He said he was confident that this step "will help increase the country’s defense capabilities."

Russia’s Reconciliation Center in Syria reported earlier that on the night of October 18, the Hassadjek village had been battered by an airstrike which left six people dead and four injured. At that time, there were no Russian Aerospace Forces or Syrian Air Force aircraft in the area in question while the US-led anti-IS (terror group outlawed in Russia) coalition’s war planes were active. According to the Russian Center, two Belgian F-16 fighters were seen over Hassadjek.

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