The US-led NATO alliance this week
announced that it intends consolidating its military presence in Eastern
Europe, the Black Sea and the Baltic states. Ahead of a NATO summit in
Wales, NATO secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called for the setting
up of «reactive battalions» along Russia’s border. The contingency would
include the eventual placement of ballistic missiles and it builds on
recent dispatches of NATO warships and fighter aircraft in the region.
Moscow, in response, said it is now revising its defense doctrine to
take reciprocal measures to protect its territory. «When NATO troops are
approaching our borders, of course, we develop a plan. I recall NATO’s
commitment not to expand the bloc’s territory eastward», said Russian
Public Chamber deputy secretary Sergei Ordzhonikidze.
That referred commitment of no NATO eastwards expansion was given by
American leaders to Russian counterparts throughout the 1990s following
the demise of the Soviet Union. Yet what has happened over the past two
decades is the exact opposite – the relentless encroachment of NATO
military along Russia’s borders. The conflict in Ukraine over the past
year has served to provide Washington with a tenuous rationale for
escalating NATO contingencies in the region on the back of unfounded
claims about Russia’s invasion and annexation of Ukrainian territory.
Economic sanctions imposed by Washington and its European allies – the
latest round announced this week – are applied with the same reckless
abandon as NATO build-up. No concrete evidence of alleged Russian
malfeasance in Ukraine is produced to validate sanctions or NATO battle
plans. It is all done as a fait accompli on the basis of assertion. US
President Barack Obama says Russian military intervention in Ukraine is
«plain to see» while not presenting a shred of credible evidence.
