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Express.co.uk, 25 Nov 2016

RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin made an extremely ominous joke when a child told him Russia ends at the Bering Strait.

The strongman president was quizzing nine-year-old Miroslav about geography live on Russian TV when he asked him where Russia’s borders lie.

The child answered that the Bering Strait was the limit of Russia, which divides it and America close to the Arctic circle. Putin’s reply is likely to spark fear into the hearts of many nations who share a border with the expansionist Russian state.

Mr Putin’s reply is likely to spark fear into the hearts of many nations who share a border with the expansionist Russian state.

“Russia has no borders,” Putin told Miroslav to cheers of approval from the crowds at the venue.

The comment is unlikely to be met so positively by people in adjacent countries, concerned by a militarily emboldened Russia.

President Putin annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014 and launched a subsequent invasion and destabilisation of much of the east of the country.

His talk of his plan to defend Russian-speaking people has concerned governments in many countries that have large populations of ethnic Russians.

Many of the Baltic States have a considerable Russian population and have warned of increasing instances of cyber attacks, which they blame on their aggressive neighbour.

A number of countries in Central Asia also have sizeable Russian minorities.

These concerns have been further exacerbated by US President-elect Donald Trump's warm words for Putin and comments criticising Nato, an organisation that many Eastern European states depend on for protection

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with young boys, five-year-old Timofei Tsoi (R) and nine-year-old Miroslav Oskirko (L) during the Russian Geographical Society awards ceremony in Moscow on November 24, 2016.

Britain recently sent 800 troops to Estonia as part of a Nato effort to try and reassure nervous members of the military alliance in the region.

Elections in Moldova and Bulgaria in recent weeks have brought pro-Russian governments to power, encircling Ukraine which is trying to move away from Russian influence, while fighting a low-level war with Kremlin-backed rebels in the east.