Any leaders that come to power there begin to hate Russians with a passion, Dmitry Peskov has said

Poland and the Baltic states have made a "big mistake" in historically demonizing Russia rather than cooperating with it to mutual benefit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

In an interview with Kremlin pool journalist Aleksandr Unashev on Tuesday, he said that Russia "really does have problems" with Poland and the Baltics.

"We really do have problems with Poland. We really do have problems with the Baltics... everyone who comes to power there begins to hate Russia and Russians with a passion," he said. "Is this a mistake? A big mistake. Because these countries could learn a lot from Russian culture and interaction with Russia."

Relations with Warsaw, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius have plummeted since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Poland shares a border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, while Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania share one with mainland Russia.

Earlier this month, Warsaw announced that it would withdraw from the Ottawa Convention - an international treaty banning anti-personnel landmines - and ramp up production of the munitions to prepare their border for a potential conflict with Russia.

The three Baltic nations had finalized their exits from the convention in December, citing an alleged threat from Moscow.

Russia has long dismissed claims that it wants to attack any NATO nations as "nonsense."

However, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, ever more bellicose statements from top European NATO officials suggest that the West is openly preparing for a direct clash.

(RT.com)