NATO Pushing For “Biggest Military Build-Up On Russia’s Borders Since the Cold War

Share:

Britain said on Wednesday it will send fighter jets to Romania next year and the United States promised troops, tanks and artillery to Poland in NATO’s biggest military build-up on Russia’s borders since the Cold War.

Germany, Canada and other NATO allies also pledged forces at a defense ministers meeting in Brussels on the same day two Russian warships armed with cruise missiles entered the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Denmark, underscoring East-West tensions.

In Madrid, the foreign ministry said Russia had withdrawn a request to refuel three warships in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta after NATO allies said they could be used to target civilians in Syria.

The ships were part of an eight-ship carrier battle group – including Russia’s sole aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov – that is expected to join around 10 other Russian vessels already off the Syrian coast, diplomats said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the troop contributions to a new 4,000-strong force in the Baltics and eastern Europe were a measured response to what the alliance believes are some 330,000 Russian troops stationed on Russia’s western flank near Moscow.

“This month alone, Russia has deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad and suspended a weapons-grade plutonium agreement with the United States,” Stoltenberg said, also accusing Russia of continued support for rebels in Ukraine.

Those ballistic missiles can hit targets across Poland and the Baltics, although NATO officials declined to say if Russia had moved nuclear warheads to Kaliningrad.

NATO’s aim is to make good on a July promise by NATO leaders to deter Russia in Europe’s ex-Soviet states, after Moscow orchestrated the annexation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014.

NATO’s plan is to set up four battle groups with a total of some 4,000 troops from early next year, backed by a 40,000-strong rapid-reaction force, and if need be, follow-on forces.

As part of that, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced a “battle-ready battalion task force” of about 900 soldiers would be sent to eastern Poland, as well as another, separate force equipped with tanks and other heavy equipment to move across eastern Europe.

“It’s a major sign of the U.S. commitment to strengthening deterrence here,” Carter said.

Britain’s Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said Britain would send an 800-strong battalion to Estonia, supported by French and Danish troops, starting from May. The United States wants its troops in position by June.

London is also sending Typhoon fighter aircraft to Romania to patrol around the Black Sea, partly in support of Turkey.

“Although we are leaving the European Union, we will be doing more to help secure the eastern and southern flanks of NATO,” Fallon said.

SYRIAN SHADOW

Others NATO allies joined the four battle groups led by the United States, Germany, Britain and Canada to go to Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. Canada said it was sending 450 troops to Latvia, joined by 140 military personnel from Italy.

Germany said it was sending between 400 and 600 troops to Lithuania, with additional forces from the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Croatia and Luxembourg.

Stoltenberg said allies’ commitments would be “a clear demonstration of our transatlantic bond.” Diplomats said it would also send a message to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has complained that European allies do not pay their way in the alliance.

For the Kremlin, the U.S.-led alliance’s plans are already too much given Russia’s grievances at NATO’s expansion eastwards, although Stoltenberg denied going too far.

But NATO’s troop announcements in the Baltic states and Poland were partly overshadowed by the dispute about whether Spain should refuel the Russian warships, which was later resolved by Moscow’s decision to withdraw its request.

NATO’s tensions with Russia have been building since Crimea and the West’s decision to impose retaliatory sanctions.

But the breakdown of a U.S-Russia brokered ceasefire in Syria on Oct. 3, followed by U.S. accusations that Russia has used cyber attacks to disrupt the presidential election, have signaled a worsening of ties.

Even before the break down of the Syrian ceasefire, Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended a treaty with Washington on cleaning up weapons-grade plutonium, signaling he was willing to use nuclear disarmament as a new bargaining chip in disputes with the United States over Ukraine and Syria.

REUTERS

Share:

Comments

45 responses to “NATO Pushing For “Biggest Military Build-Up On Russia’s Borders Since the Cold War”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar

    One assumes that NATO bases were not over-run with housing developments during the Cool-cold-war.
    It was still space reserved for NATO ‘get-togethers’ and gift exchanges with the locals.
    (And chances to buy some local art-pieces too.)

    1. German cookoo-clocks..?

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar

        Marvellous devices … really. ๐Ÿ™‚

        1. German and Japanese craftsmanship is the best in the world. I guess the Axis finally scored a victory on this front. ๐Ÿ™‚

          1. And now we have the CETA ……. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8b700df92173617de6b117b8992358ca360247e0f0d06d4b5bc0e1315164adc0.jpg
            “What’s wrong?”
            “Some Walloon moron pulled the emergency break.”
            “Intolerable!”

          2. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Stop your cartoons.
            Lest you forget, Saudi Arabia with a seat on the Human Rights Council is not the only UN scandal. Child Rape CARFrance
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a25c5a96fe56de76636a67f7571356b13fe934a2443be6a75c4be7ac9adf4d67.jpg

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Good old Belgians. :-)))

          4. I can forgive them almost anything because of the beer. ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. MekensehParty Avatar
    MekensehParty

    Wasn’t it better to actually keep NATO away from Russia’s border? Instead of all this propaganda and belligerent actions that brought it back strongly to Russia’s doorstep.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      Probably didn’t expect that ‘drop’ of the Plutonium destruction treaty, for sure. We were sort of used to going after ‘gays’, and other free-thinkers like sour ‘heavy metal’ groups. And how Putin blew money on Olympic villages and roads wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows – although the folks navigating Siberian Mud-Roads might have been watching that one. (entertainment in You-Tube.;-))
      Overflying Canada and USA and various ‘adventures’ in closer-than-NATO states wasn’t always appreciated either … and maybe Obama got tired of hearing the word ‘lame’. Too.
      I suppose the ‘Chamberlin Option’ could have kept going a while … the west even managed to have Russians doing some good ‘Flash-Concerts’ around Moscow … but the small-town ‘homeys’ didn’t appreciate it much, unless they were allowed to travel to see the Fantastic Moscow Subway.
      (might be a reason they feel they would survive the nuke-war fallout too … hmmmm … been practising quick entries lately, after all … although the Zecks in Siberia would lose out again.)
      But no, NATO had to say it still existed (maybe not with Turkey – we’re not sure) because just everyone who’s anyone yacking it up news-reports thinks it doesn’t, or has been whimpified somehow. So now NATO does ‘unsheduled exercises’ to make it known they still can … and help some Europeans feel it … and Putin turns into a grump helping a war in Syria go on longer, as well as dropping the ‘no nuke’ concept, which would help settle the nerves of a world worried about how the winds go around the planet, even if they are not a main target.
      Nerves are bad enough watching elections … it might have been better to have a ‘Russia Appreciation Day’ … but then, knowing the critics of everything, someone would say their steeples were too ornate.

    2. You’ve got it hella wrong.
      NATO will not move towards the Russian border – there are countries out of Russian border who applied to become a member state of NATO.

      All this propaganda and belligerent actions rysland stands for, not the countries that are near Russian territory.
      Russia has moved nuclear weapons capable Iskander-M missiles in the Kaliningrad enclave bordering Poland and Lithuania, said the Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday, adding it was part of routine drills.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dd50a751d5a1d09fb70ba4dcb82262d582e46dca72d6e8f192cf0393ad1b7b9d.jpg
      [Stealth corvette Soobrazitelny in St. Petersburg]
      As if it was not enough, Russia reinforces Baltic Fleet with Stealth corvette armed with long-range (2000 km) cruise missiles in what they calling a ‘worrying’ response to Nato build-up.
      As RT.com says “On Wednesday, Moscow deployed a grouping of 24 Baltic Fleet warships and vessels for military drills in its exclave on the Baltic Sea coast. The drills were launched on Tuesday in response to NATOโ€™s international drills – Saber Strike 2014 and BALTOPS 2014 -near Russiaโ€™s border.”
      BALTOPS (Baltic Operations) is an annual military exercise, and 2014 means the year of this military exercise. Russian says that “The drills were launched on Tuesday in response to NATOโ€™s international drills Saber Strike 2014 and BALTOPS 2014 -near Russiaโ€™s border.”
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dacad9e280f72d837edaaaff363ac7177d12be711d87b7bbdbb0503c9b743577.jpg
      [BALTOPS 2012]

      Sweden never hade any troops stationed on Sweden’s largest island Gotland after the World War II era, now thy ‘armed’ Gotland with a Panzer division and permanent military base.

      Latest discussion in Sweden resultat in a changed opinion – support for NATO membership is now greater than the resistance.

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar

        They still have the option of being ‘neutral’ … but it may not work as well for them as Switzerland.

        1. Sweden is not ‘neutral’, never was.

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Well then, in this context of club-joining, I didn’t think they were part of the Communist group of nations, and if not already NATO, then what else is there? I don’t think OPEC would let them in. (one never knows, however … hmm)

          2. OPEC, don’t be ridiculous.

            They couldn’t be a part of the communist group, dont forget the invasion of Russia by Charles XII of Sweden (Battle of Poltava) as well as the Thirty Years’ War
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aeffee9a15d52e0b2b7220bf308f680028d973dae4aff38d7692b80394b4ffcf.png
            Russo-Swedish War of 1788โ€“90…
            Option of being ‘neutral’ …

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Might as well be ridiculous … going back to 1709 would have the Swedes laughing, and the Russians saying ‘A Tzar War? What ? We got rid of that stuff.’

          4. “They still have the option of being ‘neutral’ ” in this context you need going back, many Swedes aren’t laughing at all.
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/79b2875de7c03219f0d27212fb2991e259ed28ac469a5f241936d28ce8dc9faa.png
            “and the Russians saying ‘A Tzar War? What ? We got rid of that stuff.’ “….
            If they have done it, why they changed the State Emblem from the Soviet Union era to the State Emblem of the Russian Empire?
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/80da29f4f4f4048e5ae1f42fb7357a29a6c44b4beaab94ad0ef7a5e56f3de082.png

          5. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Revisioning.

          6. 5thDrawer Avatar

            We have military people in Scarlett Uniforms … going ‘back’ … wouldn’t use them on a battlefield. Use ’em for ‘shows’. This one could be a dance troop too.

          7. You are slick when you don’t want to get the point in my text.
            Let’s see if this time you get it.

            After the revolution all the imperial hated symbols of the Tsardom of Russia (Russian Empire) was removed, including
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/79b2875de7c03219f0d27212fb2991e259ed28ac469a5f241936d28ce8dc9faa.png
            The House of Romanov.
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/79b2875de7c03219f0d27212fb2991e259ed28ac469a5f241936d28ce8dc9faa.png
            Now when the Soviet union is gone they reinstall the hated symbols again…

          8. 5thDrawer Avatar

            And I assume there’s little laughter there these days … Assange didn’t, much.
            Sweden ??
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fT3woGrVTQ

          9. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Yup … seems he’s had a lot of shows, right?

          10. Lucky you, you don’t need more to be entertained….

          11. Again you are wrong, Germany have the best benefits.

            AfD is refering to the new restrictions made in Sweden by the courrent government.
            AfD gaining popularity due to this Swedish politics.

            Once one of the most welcoming countries for refugees, the Swedish government introduced tough new restrictions on asylum seekers, including rules that would limit the number of people granted permanent residency and make it more difficult for parents to reunite with their children.

            The government said the legislation, proposed by the Social Democrat minority government and enacted by a vote of 240 to 45, was necessary to prevent the country from becoming overstretched by the surge of migration to Europe that began last year.
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0c2c99d31f4dc82c0b60faab57fec7d803dae2a7f1d13a9e79164d34f38a1793.jpg
            The Majid family, refugees from Syria, at their home in Backhammar, Sweden, in April. Sweden has introduced tough new restrictions on asylum seekers.
            (Photo: MAURICIO LIMA)

            The Sweden Democrats party losing popularity because of many scandals associated with German neonazis.

          12. 5thDrawer Avatar

            I knew North America wasn’t up to Europe in General, when it came to benefits of the ‘working classes’.
            Canada tries to emulate … never had the same holidays … but doesn’t have the incomes necessary to do the ‘Fiberal Taxing’ for the ‘niceties’ they want to hand out … and in fact, we go backward on even that over the last 20 years, due to the Yankee influences. The past year of the ‘dropping dollar’ hasn’t helped any of recent hopes – and folks scrounge for jobs everywhere. As everywhere, the ‘middle class’ drops.
            So you can only go back to ‘errors of politics’ not being right in the first place – to handle the ‘worst case’ scenarios. Poilticians do the ‘positivity dance’ and talk about the dream of ‘best things’ … all fine and good but ONLY IF THINGS STAY THE SAME. And people forget that NOTHING STAYS THE SAME.
            The big ‘They’ yack about a coming ‘world depression’, and no-one believes it until it happens – then it does, and no-one was prepared. And these days there’s only vertical human-storage concrete to grow some food on. Even as they throw out ‘dated’ food.
            This week, a whole field of pumpkins i know, will be plowed under, simply because Halloween will be over, and NO-ONE wants to use those to make pies … ‘too much work’. They buy a canned variety if they want a pie – but more likely just buy the pie. I’ll let you guess which tastes better, and has more nutrition from the pumpkin.
            And this is everywhere – the ‘modern’ society, that doesn’t read about the past.
            There are many small subjects, which affect the whole scene.
            So NOW you have a backlash from the ‘goody-twoshoes’ policies that had no checks in place – and no directions ready, to keep out people who never had the same ‘work-ethic’ or sense of necessity to work together for a ‘common good’. Voila.
            And I assume the ‘restrictions’ must be tougher than would have been necessary, if sensible ones had existed in the first place, about immigrations. If ‘Europeans’ wanted to enjoy unrestricted travel among themselves, they should have clarified that it was ONLY for their citizens … not everyone who walked in for a holiday.
            (Holidays ARE a necessity, of course … good at least for general Health. One reason life-span stats increased, of course.)

          13. Is this Hind’s uglier little brother? ๐Ÿ™‚

        2. Hind Abyad Avatar
          Hind Abyad

          Russia has the right to defend it’s country and it’s citizens from warmongering West.

          ‘US Russia World War III’
          The End of M.A.D. โ€” The Beginning of Madness’
          https://theinternationalreporter.org/2016/06/01/us-russia-world-war-iii/

          1. Rudy1947 Avatar

            Don’t recollect any attacks on Russia, massive armies across their land, aerial bombardments from anyone or the sinking of Russian Naval vessels.

          2. 5thDrawer Avatar

            ….. let alone their passenger planes … ๐Ÿ˜‰

      2. Mekenseh’s post is ironic. In fact, it’s so smart he had me fooled for a few seconds. ๐Ÿ™‚

        1. MekensehParty Avatar
          MekensehParty

          Thank you! I got a hind like and I was sure it was totally misunderstood.
          I was actually asking the petit czar if it wasn’t better…

          1. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            No worries i took away.

          2. 5thDrawer Avatar

            hehehehehehehehehe

          3. You’re most welcome. You can’t out-hind Hind, though, even if you try really hard, mate. ๐Ÿ™‚

          4. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Most welcome on Yalibnan shift to most important propagandist..study the absurd lie no wonder MYK shares same twilight zone.

            -Discussion on The Spectator
            Y K – oldfarquhar1 . 11 hours ago

            The last Shah of Iran was that country’s best ruler at least for a few centuries back. And of course, he did not come to power because of the Americans. As to Saddam and the Assads, I understand the Soviets’ and the Russians’ concern for their well-being, but why Putinoids in the West have such an emotional attachment to them is simply beyond me.”
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/127d5b57fd88cf38d389836fa1b40e085e417a3142155cb1d38de95424680bfa.jpg

          5. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            You can’t out Zionist Liars hub though, even if you try really hard, mate. ๐Ÿ™‚
            Zionists mates controlle the White house, US Congress. “NGO” White Helmets? Haha..
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEhv6J0gFHo

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Weird, eh? ๐Ÿ˜‰
            USA being lied to AGAIN?? Just like the gas bit … or ???
            (small retraction at the end there)

          2. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            What USA?
            They’re lying before each invasion, briefing are vague at best. Ridiculous to think SAA would bomb own hospitals, schools, infrastructures.

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar

            I think ‘people’ are noting they need to keep the ‘News Folks’ more informed these days.
            ๐Ÿ˜‰

          4. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Although, one can adit there are brainless types over there who plant their weapons rather close to some ‘civilian’ places as well. Or use parts of them for storage. And explosions are not smart when they go off. That is why it needs ‘boots on the ground’ if wanting to clear the buildings, the towns, the country.

          5. Sure, sure. This dishevelled heroin-chic Putinoid intern on Russia Today ALWAYS tells the truth, and nothing but it. ๐Ÿ™‚

          6. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            ‘Report: DOJ Tried Repeatedly To Kill FBIโ€™s Clinton Foundation Investigation’
            http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/30/report-doj-tried-repeatedly-to-kill-fbis-clinton-foundation-investigation/

  3. Rudy1947 Avatar

    Putie flexes his military might and the Russian people people will love and embrace him for his defiance of the West. The idea of attacking NATO and having the Russian military come screaming into Europe is ludicrous.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *