Russia Slams US General for Plan to Destroy Russia’s Air Defenses

Gen. Harrigian says US has a plan to take down Kaliningrad

It goes without saying that the US and Russia both have many, many plans to attack one another. Generally speaking, however, it’s been treated as bad form to bring them up, and worse form to brag about them.

So Russia is criticizing US General Jeffrey Harrigian for talking up how the US has plans to destroy all air defenses in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, saying there should be “no doubt” the US could do it.

Russian Foreign Ministry officials say they consider the statement a “threat” and also particularly irresponsible, while the Defense Ministry said that Kaliningrad is well defended from US aggression.

US forces in Poland often conduct wargames settling around moving north into Kaliningrad, and the region is small enough that the US could probably take it, at least for a time, in the event of a war.

That probably doesn’t matter, however, as a full-scale ground war between the US and Russia where they’re seizing territory almost certainly would escalate into a nuclear conflict,and by the time the general is proven right, tens or hundreds of millions of people are about to be killed in a conflagration.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.