The head of the legislature in Russia's Chechnya region says that Russia will provide arms to Mexico if Washington supplies weapons to Ukraine.
Chechen Parliament Speaker Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov said the arms would be aimed at reigniting U.S.-Mexican disputes over “territories annexed by the United States in the American states of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and part of Wyoming.”
“We will perceive arms shipments to Ukraine as a signal to respond in kind,” Abdurakhmanov said in a March 24 statement posted on the Chechen parliament’s website.
Abdurakhmanov is a close associate of Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed strongman who rules Chechnya.
Prominent U.S. lawmakers have called on U.S. President Barack Obama to supply Ukraine with weapons they say will allow Kyiv to protect its territory against Russian-backed separatists.
The Obama administration has resisted the calls, saying the move could result in greater bloodshed between Ukrainian forces and the separatists in a conflict that has killed more than 6,000 people since April 2014.