Russia has warned against any attempts to target its Baltic Sea enclave following a fictional plot line featured in a new British miniseries.
Russian embassy responds to Sky One series
Putin's Russia appears to have been riled up by a new Sky One miniseries The Wargame. The five-part show, which premiered last week, centres around a fictional Russian attack against the UK and the ensuing hostilities.
When Britain is left to fend for itself in the series, the PM orders a retaliatory attack on Murmansk and Kaliningrad, a strategically valuable pocket of Russian territory nestled between Poland and Lithuania in real life.
In a scathing post, the Russian UK embassy wrote on its official Telegram channel: 'We have noted an article in The i Paper on Kaliningrad, which suggests, among other things, that NATO could blockade the region or 'de-recognise Russian sovereignty'. The prospect of a hypothetical strike is also explored in Sky News' recent mini-series The Wargame.
'Those advocating plans to blockade or strike Kaliningrad should have no illusions about the consequences. Any British or NATO military action against Russian territory would be met with a response using all means at Russia's disposal, including nuclear weapons.
'Russia has repeatedly made clear that it neither seeks confrontation with NATO and Europe nor intends to attack them. But should anyone choose to unleash such a conflict, they must be under no illusion that Russia will respond accordingly.'
Background on Kaliningrad and The Wargame
The post referred to an article in the i News, which described Kaliningrad as Putin's 'greatest weakness.' One former Nato official told the outlet that 'Russia knows it's a vulnerability.'
While the chilling plot of The Wargame is fictional, it stars real-life politicians like Michael Gove, Nicola Sturgeon, Penny Mordaunt, Sayeeda Warsi and Kim Darroch. Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as the White House communications chief, took on the role of Nato's secretary general.
The Wargame is based on Sky's podcast with the same name, which started in June last year. The series and ensuing publicity have no doubt put the secretive Kaliningrad enclave on the map.
The area was severely bombed at the end of the Second World War before being made part of the USSR. During the Cold War, the zone's secrecy increased as it became a home for the Soviet's Baltic fleet.
