Tag Archives: NATO

NATO ups military presence amid Russian threat

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By JUERGEN BAETZ and JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG, Associated Press | April 16, 2014 | Updated: April 16, 2014 7:07am
  • NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen addresses the media after an NATO Ambassadors Council at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, April 16, 2014. NATO says it's reinforcing its military presence on eastern border on sea, land and in the air. Photo: Yves Logghe, AP / AP
    Photo By Yves Logghe/AP
    NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen addresses the media after an NATO Ambassadors Council at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, April 16, 2014. NATO says it’s reinforcing its military presence on eastern border on sea, land and in the air.

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO is strengthening its military footprint along its eastern border immediately in response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, the alliance’s chief said Wednesday.

Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO’s air policing aircraft will fly more sorties over the Baltic region and allied ships will deploy to the Baltic Sea, the eastern Mediterranean and elsewhere if needed.

“We will have more planes in the air, mores ships on the water and more readiness on the land,” Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels, declining to give exact troop figures.

Moscow must make clear “it doesn’t support the violent actions of well-armed militias or pro-Russian separatists” in eastern Ukraine, he added.

NATO’s eastern members — including Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Poland — have been wary following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, demanding a more robust military deterrence to counter neighboring Russia.

He said the NATO deployments are about “deterrence and de-escalation” in the face of Russia’s aggressive behavior.

The NATO chief did not mention naval deployments to the Black Sea — which Russia would likely see as a direct aggression even though NATO members Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey also border the sea. He insisted, however, that “more will follow if needed.”

NATO estimates Russia has amassed some 40,000 troops on Ukraine’s eastern border and could invade parts of the country within days if it wished. Fogh Rasmussen urged Russia to pull those troops back.

The 28-nation alliance has already suspended most cooperation and talks with Russia. The United States has dispatched fighter planes to Poland and the Baltics, enabling NATO to reinforce air patrols on its eastern border. NATO also performs daily AWACs surveillance flights over Poland and Romania.

What the Russians really think

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Article from 2012 – just a WHOLE year ago.  For you Russia lovers, remember that a time may come if you continue to “Believe in Putin” that you might become radioactive atoms floating in the stratosphere for some centuries.  The Russians ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS.  What Putin is really thinking about is planning and directing the Russian military is to be able to carry out is a first strike scenario. You know, for his memoirs. A.P.

Dmitry Medvedev on nuclear weapons: “They may still come in handy”

 On 26, May 2012

Almost as if the strategic leaders and the media have no idea what’s happening on Russian soil, Dmitry Medvedev seems to be shouting it from the rooftops.  As we have learned in the past, when Russia makes promises, they lie; when Russia makes threats, they are telling the downright truth.  In just the past week, they have made one threat after another concerning their resistance to NATO’s missile shield, and things just got worse.

Exacerbating the tensions between NATO allies and Russia, Medvedev decides to flex Russian muscles on their nuclear capabilities.  Charles Clover and Geoff Dyer of FT.com report:

Then, taking the podium in a glittering Kremlin ballroom, Mr. Medvedev declared that Russia’s younger generation needed positive role models to inspire them towards “success in literature, art, education, and” – he paused wistfully – “nuclear weapons”.

Medvedev continues to talk about Russia’s itchy trigger finger and their nuclear arms capabilities.

“They may still come in handy,” he said, apropos, seemingly, of nothing. “We’re not going to use them, but let’s still keep them around, because we have a big country, a complex country. We must value it and protect it.”

This heightened rhetoric is suspected to be coming from what was discussed at the most recent NATO summit in Chicago.  The NATO European missile defense shield has been the subject of debate over the past few weeks, but it seems as if Russia is bringing the aggravation to a head.  They claim that the defensive measures of the shield would provoke war.  But, I thought that war was over?  Apparently, not.

In fact, the article goes on to state:

If that were to happen, said General Nikolai Makarov, chief of Russia’s general staff, it could lead to an “illusion of security”, which could lead to war. Countries allowing the missile defence shield on their soil, Gen Makarov said, risked a Russian nuclear first strike. “A decision on pre-emptive use of the attack weapons available will be made when the situation worsens,” he breezily told a news conference this month.”

Yes, the good general actually said the words, “nuclear first strike”.  This is extremely unnerving, especially given their recent activities, as reported earlier last week.  Steve Gutterman of Reuters reports:

The Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) was successfully launched from the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia and its dummy warhead landed on target on the Kamchatka peninsula on the Pacific coast, the Defense Ministry said.”

The new ICBM has capabilities, which suggest that the Russians had anticipated NATO’s construction of the shield.

The new missile is expected to improve Russia’s offensive arsenal, “including by increasing the capability to overcome missile defense systems that are being created”, the ministry said in a statement.

The General Makarov’s comments of a first strike are especially scary, concerning NORAD’s current level of preparedness.  The Clinton administration implemented PDD 60, which states that the US will absorb a first strike before retaliating.  In an interview with Robert Bell of the National Security Council, he stated that the US will no longer “launch on warning”.  He further says,

“Our policy is to confirm that we are under nuclear attack with actual detonations before retaliating,”

In short, if Russia does decide to launch a first strike in response to NATO’s deployment of the European missile shield, they shall certainly succeed (and their newly tested ICBM has proven it can get through).  This makes the US and NATO allies strategically sitting ducks.

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