MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/. A NATO attack on Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad will trigger an adequate response from Russia, including measures stipulated by its nuclear doctrine, said Leonid Slutsky, the chairman of the international affairs committee of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament).
"An attack on the Kaliningrad Region will mean an attack on Russia, with all due retaliatory measures, stipulated, among other things, by its nuclear doctrine. The US general should take this into account before making such statements," Slutsky, who is also the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), told TASS.
The statement came as a response to US Army Europe and Africa commander, Gen. Christopher Donahue, who told Defense News that Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad is roughly 47 miles wide and surrounded by NATO on all sides, so the US and its allies now have the capability to "take that down from the ground in a timeframe that is unheard of and faster than we’ve ever been able to do."
Slutsky described rhetoric about an attack on the Kaliningrad Region as "a plan to unleash World War Three with subsequent global standoff with no winners."
"Today, NATO poses a threat to global security and stability," the lawmaker added.