Russian President Vladimir Putin removed Mikhail Vanin and Vladimir Lipaev, respectively, from their post as Russian ambassadors to Latvia and Estonia, as per relevant decrees posted on the official legal information portal on Friday.

“To release Vanin Mikhail Valentinovich from the duties of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Latvia,” one of the posted documents read.

A similar decree was addressed to Vladimir Lipaev, who represented the interests of Russia in the Republic of Estonia.

In a different context, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a Russian media interview on Saturday, stressed that despite the West's multi-billion-dollar-worth campaigns supplying Ukraine with weapons to support their proxy war, the US and Europeans will not be able to outgun Russia.

Putin explained that the West has been attempting to "create a new Axis", similar to what Nazi Germany did before WWII, recalling what he had said in a previous interview about NATO agreeing to a new strategic concept bloc.

“Last year, NATO agreed on a new strategic concept for the development of the alliance, directly stating that the bloc intends to develop relations with countries of the Asia-Pacific region… And they are directly listed, these countries, such as New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, and others... And they announced that they will create a global NATO", Putin said.

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