Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin was not pleased when Romania refused to let his flight enter their airspace and forced his plane to divert back to Moscow.
In response, Rogozin tweeted early Saturday that if he would ever find himself flying over Romania again, he would be on a plane packing a lot more firepower.
The translated tweet reads: “Upon U.S. request, Romania has closed its air space for my plane. Ukraine doesn’t allow me to pass through again. Next time I’ll fly on board TU-160.”
The TU-160 is the Russian military’s most advanced and largest strategic bomber in its arsenal.
Not surprisingly, this tweet did not go over well with Romania. According to Reuters, Romania’s foreign ministry demanded a clarification from Moscow on Saturday if Rogozin’s bombastic statement represents “the Russian Federation’s official position towards Romania as an EU and NATO member.”
Rogozin was one of the high-ranking Russian officials sanctioned by the United States in March in retaliation for Russia’s annexation of Crimea and this is the reason why Romania refused passage to him.
He does not appear to be backing down from his comments and his twitter feed continues to show defiance towards the Romanian government.
Another tweet issued on Saturday after news broke about his aggressive comments reads:
Well, Sirs from Romania, we’ll soon explain it all to you – who you are and what we think of you
— Dmitry Rogozin (@DRogozin) May 10, 2014
This isn’t the first time the deputy prime minister has made headlines for explosive statements made on Twitter. During the build-up to an eventually aborted U.S. intervention into Syria last September, Rogozin remarked that the West’s policy towards the Middle East resembles “a monkey with a grenade.”
When learning of his sanctioned status in March, he tweeted that President Obama is a “prankster” and laughed off the penalty imposed on him by the U.S.