Brussels has finally said aloud what most of Europe suspected. Andrius Kubilius, the EU's defence commissioner, told Lithuanian broadcaster LRT that Moscow's warnings over Kaliningrad have one purpose, which is to frighten Europeans into abandoning Ukraine.
Neither NATO nor the EU, he noted, has any plan to attack the exclave.
The choreography was rather good. Russian embassies across Europe announced they had "information" about a planned air and naval blockade, and then Putin took the stage at Valdai on Thursday to promise that an attack on Kaliningrad would put every weapon Russia owns on the agenda, nuclear ones included.
He even quoted Chekhov on guns that must eventually go off, while insisting he intends to attack nobody.
It is a neat trick, inventing a threat and then threatening the world over it. Mark Rutte replied that NATO is a defensive alliance and nuclear talk helps no one. The real target is not Kaliningrad's border but Europe's nerve.