Russia’s former president, Dmitry Medvedev, has warned World leaders that any advancement on the Crimea peninsula by a NATO member state could ‘amount to a declaration of war on Russia which could lead to World War III’.
“For us, Crimea is a part of Russia. And that means forever. Any attempt to encroach on Crimea is a declaration of war against our country,” Medvedev told Argumenty i Fakty, a news website owned by the city of Moscow.
“And if this is done by a NATO member-state, this means conflict with the entire North Atlantic alliance; a World War III. A complete catastrophe.”
Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, also said that if Finland and Sweden joined NATO, Russia would strengthen its borders and be “ready for retaliatory steps,” including the prospect of installing Iskander hypersonic missiles “on their threshold”.
(Courtesy Al Jazeera)
