Russia orders all officials to fly home any relatives living abroad, as tensions mount over the prospect of a global war
- Russian officials have been 'told to bring relatives home to the Motherland'
- Failure to act will put promotion chances at risk, according to local reports
- Comes amid worsening relations between Russia and US over Syria crisis
- US has pulled plug on Syria talks and accused Russia of hacking attacks
- Russia has moved nuclear-capable missiles nearer to the Polish border
Russia
is ordering all of its officials to fly home any relatives living
abroad amid heightened tensions over the prospect of global war, it has
been claimed.
Politicians and high-ranking figures are said to have received a warning from president Vladimir Putin to bring their loved-ones home to the 'Motherland', according to local media.
It
comes after Putin cancelled a planned visit to France amid a furious
row over Moscow's role in the Syrian conflict and just days after it
emerged the Kremlin had moved nuclear-capable missiles nearer to the
Polish border.
Former
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has also warned that the world is at a
'dangerous point' due to rising tensions between Russia and the US.
Scroll down for video
Politicians and high-ranking figures
are said to have received a warning from president Vladimir Putin
(pictured) to bring their loved-ones home to the 'Fatherland', according
to local media
Russia is ordering all of its
officials to fly home any relatives living abroad amid heightened
tensions over the prospect of global war, it has been claimed
According to the Russian site Znak.com,
administration staff, regional administrators, lawmakers of all levels
and employees of public corporations have been ordered to take their
children out of foreign schools immediately.
Failure to act will see officials jeopardising their chances of promotion, local media has reported.
The exact reason for the order is not yet clear.
But
Russian political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky is quoted by the Daily
Star as saying: 'This is all part of the package of measures to prepare
elites to some 'big war'.'
Relations
between Russia and the US are at their lowest since the Cold War and
have soured in recent days after Washington pulled the plug on Syria
talks and accused Russia of hacking attacks.
Mr Gorbachev's comments come as France
has said they will ask the International Criminal Court's prosecutor to
launch an investigation into war crimes it says have been committed by
Syrian and Russian forces in eastern Aleppo, pictured
The
Kremlin has also suspended a series of nuclear pacts, including a
symbolic cooperation deal to cut stocks of weapons-grade plutonium.
Just
days ago, it was reported that Russia had moved nuclear-capable
missiles near to the Polish border as tensions escalated between the
world’s largest nation and the West.
The
Iskander missiles sent to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the Baltic
Sea between Nato members Poland and Lithuania, are now within range of
major Western cities including Berlin.
Polish officials – whose capital Warsaw is potentially threatened – have described the move as of the 'highest concern'.
Putin's
decision to cancel his Paris visit came a day after French President
Francois Hollande said Syrian forces had committed a 'war crime' in the
battered city of Aleppo with the support of Russian air strikes.
Putin
had been due in Paris on October 19 to inaugurate a spiritual centre at
a new Russian Orthodox church near the Eiffel Tower, but Hollande had
insisted his Russian counterpart also took part in talks with him about
Syria.
The
unprecedented cancellation of a visit so close to being finalised is a
'serious step... reminiscent of the Cold War', said Russian foreign
policy analyst Fyodor Lukyanov.
'This is part of the broader escalation in the tensions between Russia and the West, and Russia and NATO,' he told AFP.
The
Kremlin has also been angered over the banning of the Russian
Paralympic team from the Rio Olympics amid claims of state-sponsored
doping of its athletes.
The unprecedented cancellation of
Putin's visit to France so close to being finalised is a 'serious
step... reminiscent of the Cold War', said Russian foreign policy
analyst Fyodor Lukyanov
Meanwhile,
the top advisor to US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has said
the FBI is investigating Russia's possible role in hacking thousands of
his personal emails.
But
Russian officials have vigorously rejected accusations of meddling in
the US presidential elections and dismissed allegations that Moscow was
behind a series of recent hacks on US institutions.
Retired
Russian Lt. Gen. Evgeny Buzhinsky told the BBC: 'Of course there is a
reaction. As far as Russia sees it, as Putin sees it, it is full-scale
confrontation on all fronts. If you want a confrontation, you'll get
one.
'But
it won't be a confrontation that doesn't harm the interests of the
United States. You want a confrontation, you'll get one everywhere.'
Earlier
this week British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson waded into the row,
calling for anti-war campaigners to protest outside the Russian embassy
in London.
Johnson
said the 'wells of outrage are growing exhausted' and anti-war groups
were not expressing sufficient outrage at the conflict in Aleppo.
'Where is the Stop the War Coalition at the moment? Where are they?' he said during a parliamentary debate.
Read more:
No comments:
Post a Comment