Russian news agency ITAR-TASS
December 1, 2005
Moscow, 1 December: The Russian leadership will never agree to a total demilitarization of Kaliningrad Region, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Army Gen Yuriy Baluyevskiy told journalists today.
“After the incident with the Su-27 fighter, some voices were heard calling for a complete demilitarization of Kaliningrad Region. The Russian leadership will never agree to that. We will continue to improve our military grouping in the region,” the army general said.
The Baltic countries’ accession to NATO, he said, “has had an adverse effect on the situation in the Baltic region”. “It seems to me that in their approach, our colleagues from NATO are implementing the will of politicians; their activities are aimed at achieving their own, rather than mutually beneficial, interests. Now they are trying to use the coalition’s potential to pursue their own narrow agenda”.
[RIA-Novosti news agency, in Russian, 1443 gmt, gave a slightly different version of the last quote from Baluyevskiy: “These states [Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia] are trying to use the coalition’s potential to pursue their own agenda.”]
Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1440 gmt 1 Dec 05
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