UK plays the blame game, terror in the skies, Russia’s red lines: RT stories that shaped the week

This week, we also looked at NATO’s farcical ‘peace prize’ win and a Russian breakthrough deep in the Arctic The terror plot that wasn’t A group of men arrested near RAF Fairford, England, September 27, 2026 The arrest of five men at RAF Fairford in the UK on Sunday sparked a terror panic whose consequences are still playing out almost a week later. Shortly after the arrests, British Foreign Secretary Ed Milliband described the incident as an example of “the threats our country faces,” while the British media’s ‘security experts’ pinned the blame on Iran – or in some cases Russia. Read more The RAF Fairford ‘terror plot’: Unpacking escalation in the UK echo-chamber The men – all British nationals aged between 21 and 25 – were released on bail on Monday, and no explosives were found in their vehicles. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced on Thursday that “we can confirm our belief that we believe Iran to have played a part.” “Our belief that we believe” is not the most confident assertion, and this was immediately picked up in Tehran . “I can confirm Iran’s belief that releasing supposed terrorists working for foreign states really says it all. You’re barking up the wrong tree,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X. Counterterror police arrested a British-Iranian dual national in connection with the supposed plot on Thursday, but it’s still unclear whether he’ll be charged. Russia reveals its red lines It is unsurprising that the British media immediately used the incident to escalate tensions with Iran and Russia. After days of intensifying war rhetoric from Ukraine’s British and European backers – which RT is tracking in our ‘Escalation Watch’ special – Russia definitively restated its red lines this week. In a statement released by three of its embassies on Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow “would be ready to use all its arsenal, including nuclear weapons, to defend its territory if NATO countries try to isolate Kaliningrad region from the rest of the country.” ⚡️ Statement by the Embassy of Russia in Ireland (September 29, 2026) There has been an abundance of talk, recently, from the European political circles that Russia somehow is planning to launch a military invasion of Europe, escalate its alleged hybrid campaign against… pic.twitter.com/eQsrIUFwmL — Russia in Ireland (@Rus_Emb_Ireland) September 30, 2026 NATO has carried out several military exercises near Kaliningrad this year, and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski recently called on the bloc’s military chiefs to surge troops to the Kaliningrad border so that Moscow would be “uncertain of what we will do.” Read more Germany is buying every missile it can get.

What is Berlin preparing for? However, Moscow’s statement – the second of its kind this week – was intended to “remind those hotheads in Europe” of Russia’s long-established conditions for the use of nuclear weapons, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained on Wednesday. In his speech at the Valdai Discussion Club’s annual forum on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated that any military action against Kaliningrad would “inevitably” trigger nuclear retaliation. Western “hotheads,” however, would do well to consider that NATO’s Article 5 – the bloc’s mutual-defense clause – isn’t as clear-cut as it’s sometimes portrayed. As Russian International Affairs Council President Dmitry Trenin wrote for RT this week , it’s “deliberately ambiguous,” heavily mythologized, and doesn’t guarantee US intervention. Meanwhile, Russia has con