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Disinfo: There is a plan of the capture of the Kaliningrad by Poland and the US

Summary

In September last year, the commander of the US Air Force in Europe, Jeffrey Harrigan, announced that the Pentagon had a plan to break through the multilayer air defence of the Kaliningrad region. In October a plan was published for the capture of the Kaliningrad region by Poland and the United States.

Disproof

A recurring pro-Kremlin narrative on Western attempts to encircle Russia and Western belligerence.

Russian media has extensively misquoted General Jeffrey Harrigian's statements reported by the digital magazine Breaking Defense. During the press briefing, Gen. Harrigian outlined tactics the U.S. Air Force is developing in response to the ongoing threat of Russian anti-aircraft, anti-ship, and surface-to-surface missiles based in Kaliningrad. U.S. General Jeffrey Harrigian did not refer to any "plans" to conquer Kaliningrad. He said that "If we have to go in there to take down, for instance, the Kaliningrad IADS (Integrated Air Defense System), let there be no doubt we have a plan to go after that." If Russian aggression out of the strategically located Kaliningrad enclave required a US response, he continued, "it would be a multi-domain, very timely and effective capability that we would bring to ensure we have the access we need in that environment".

As of 2014, following growing tensions between Russia and NATO countries, Russia has been increasing its military presence in the Kaliningrad region. Satellite imagery reported by the Federation of American Scientists in June 2018 showed renovations of what appears to be an active nuclear weapons storage site, about 50 kilometres from the Polish border. Read full debunk by Polygraph here.

There was no plan of capturing the Kaliningrad region. The origins of this NATO scenario comes from a report by the American Jamestown Foundation entitled “How to Defend the Baltic States”, published in October 2019.

The report mention that “three Baltic States—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—face powerful Russian forces” and therefore this report comes to “lay out the military units and force posture, along with changes to Alliance command and control, that would be needed to prevail in case Russia was to spark hostilities in the Baltic States” after it was proven that "Russian aggression in Chechnya, Georgia, Donbas, Crimea and Syria have proven that military force can be used successfully without eliciting a forceful response from the West".

The disinformation message appeared in the same article as the claims that "NATO troops encircle the borders of the Russian Federation".

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publication/media

Sputnik Armenia - Russian (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 208
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 11/08/2020
  • Language/target audience: Russian
  • Country: Russia, US, Poland
  • Keywords: Kaliningrad, Encircling Russia, Missile defence system, US presence in Europe

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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