Swedes 'smoke too much marijuana' to locate Russian plane correctly
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
18.12.2014 12:45
Russia's ambassador to Denmark has ridiculed claims by Swedish authorities that a Poznan-bound passenger plane might have collided with a Russian military plane on Friday.
Photo: wikipedia
''They smoke too much marijuana,'' said Mikhail Vanin in an interview with Danish daily Berlingske.
Sweden's defence minister Peter Hultqvist had claimed on Swedish radio that the Russian aircraft had switched off its transponders so that it would not show up on commercial radar, and that lives had been endangered.
Although Russia has already admitted that the plane's transponders were switched off, it has argued that the aircraft was 70 km off course of the Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) flight, and posed no threat.
The SAS plane had flown from Copenhagen, and the supposed near-collision would have taken place above southern Sweden.
Meanwhile, Vanin has also dismissed Swedish claims that an alien submarine had entered its waters.
''Now they're saying they saw something all over again,'' he commented.
''I'm afraid the Swedes visit 'Pusher Street' too often,'' he added, in reference to the popular name given to a street where illegal drugs are sold in Copenhagen's Christiania neighbourhood.
Last week, Poland's defence minister Tomasz Siemoniak said that ''for several days, there has been unprecedented Russian activity over the Baltic Sea.''
He decribed Russian manoeuvres as an ''ongoing test'' in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis. (nh)