Centrum Stosunków Międzynarodowych - 11 October 2016: Polish Foreign Affairs Minister Waszczykowski complains about Russian offensive missiles deployment in Kaliningrad

Recent Russian military operations in the Kaliningrad exclave have sparked firm condemning reactions by neighbouring governments. On October 10, Poland’s Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski expressed public concern defining the deployment of ballistic missiles in the garrison as “an absolutely inappropriate response to what the North Atlantic Alliance is doing.” These declarations follow those of his German and Lithuanian counterparts, which depicted the current diplomatic situation between Russia and the West even more dangerous than the Cold War.

However, official Kremlin’s ministerial sources disproved this version by confirming that the missiles have been sent to the region within the framework of routine manoeuvres concerning a military training of the Russian Armed Forces.

“I do not see any justification for such a large reinforcement of the Kaliningrad garrison by deploying offensive weapons such as Iskander missiles there […] this means that most of Polish territory could be a target of these missiles” the Polish Ministry declared the same day during an official visit to his Belarusian counterpart in Minsk.

More specifically, Russian operations to deploy Iskander missiles started on October 7. The Iskander has a range of 450 miles and it is capable of carrying nuclear weapons. It means that northern European capitals such as Berlin and Warsaw and the those of the Baltic states could be potential targets if the missile is launched from the Russian exclave.

In addition to this escalation of tension, on October 11 the European Parliament voted a resolution against “hostile propaganda and disinformation directed against our societies by both Kremlin and non-state actors such as ISIS/Daesh,” as the Polish EU Parliament’s rapporteur Anna Fotyga (Law and Justice) announced the same day.