Blockading Russian exclave would trigger ‘unprecedented escalation’ – Putin

Any attempt to blockade Russia’s Kaliningrad on the Baltic coast would spark an “unprecedented escalation” and could expand into a large-scale armed conflict, President Vladimir Putin has warned.

The Russian leader made the remarks on Friday during his traditional end-of-year Q&A session when asked how Moscow would respond if European states sought to impose a blockade on the country’s westernmost region, an exclave bordered by NATO members Lithuania and Poland.

Putin said he hoped such a scenario would not occur, adding: “If they create threats of this kind, we will eliminate those threats.” 

“Everyone must understand and be aware that actions of this kind will simply lead to an escalation unprecedented to date… taking it to a completely different level… up to a large-scale armed conflict,” he added.

Russian officials have repeatedly warned against any steps that could cut the exclave off by land. Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko has previously said that he hoped “common sense” in Europe would prevent “playing with fire” around Kaliningrad.

Some Western leaders, particularly from Poland and the Baltic states, have previously called for attacks on Kaliningrad in the event of a conflict between Moscow and NATO. Moscow maintains that it poses no threat to the EU or the US-led military bloc and has described such statements as evidence of hostile intent.

Sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland, Kaliningrad relies on rail and road links through Lithuanian territory to connect with the rest of Russia. Tensions over transit flared after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, when Vilnius began restricting the rail transit of goods subject to EU sanctions to and from Kaliningrad. The dispute was later partially resolved and rail traffic restored.