By Zine Larbaoui
On April 4th, Russian officials have formally protested against the military strengthening of NATO in Eastern Europe, warning of the fact that it destabilizes the relationship between NATO and Russia since the dissolution of the USSR Stalinist bureaucracy in 1991.
This week, NATO has broken its cooperation with Russia and initiated military exercises in several countries along the borders of Russia, including the Baltic States and Bulgaria. This is part of a broader military buildup, implemented since the fascist pro-Western regime coup in the Ukraine. This military buildup has led to the deployment of NATO forces or the planification of military exercises in Poland, The Ukraine and the Baltic States.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on April 4th that Moscow has demanded explanations from NATO about this military buildup. “We have asked questions to the military alliance of the North Atlantic. We do not expect any answer but an answer based on full compliance with the rules that we have coordinated.” Lavrov accused NATO of violating the 1997 agreement between NATO and Russia, which states that NATO will not proceed with a new “additional permanent stationing of substantial combat forces.” He also accused NATO of violating the Montreux Convention on the deployment of ships in the Black Sea which requires non-resident warships can not stay more than 21 days in this region. “Lately, American ships have repeatedly extended their stay in the Black Sea. This extension has not always been in accordance with the rules under the Montreux Convention,” said Lavrov.
Two days after the suspension of cooperation between NATO and Russia, the latter recalled its ambassador to NATO, ostensibly for consultation. “The policy of exacerbating tensions is not our choice. However, we see no possibility of continuing military cooperation with NATO as if nothing had happened, “said the Deputy Minister of Defense, Anatoly Antonov. The NATO officials signaled wanting to continue the escalation, ignoring Russian objections. The Secretary General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen rejected Lavrov’s speech as being “nothing more than a new piece of Russian propaganda and disinformation.” Rasmussen said that he believed NATO was no longer committed to the treaty of 1997, citing the war in Georgia in 2008 and the current crisis in Ukraine, he said: “Russia violates all principles and international commitments it has made, notably, not to invade other countries.” Rasmussen’s arguments, justifying the irresponsible escalation of NATO in Eastern Europe depicting Russia as the aggressor, is a bunch of lies. The 2008 war in Georgia, as even recognized later by U.S. officials, began with the attack by the Georgian regime supported by the United States of the Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in Abkhazia and South Ossetia South, which had not attacked anyone.
Attempts to present NATO as a defender of the world order and international law are an obvious scam. Even ignoring the fact that the NATO powers engage in torture worldwide and commit assassinations by drone, they have time and again sought to conduct an aggressive war, during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 led by the United States or the significant risk of war in Syria last year, despite the opposition of the Security Council of the UN and in violation of international law. With regard to the current crisis in Ukraine, it exploded after the NATO powers have blatantly supported the coup in Kiev, led by fascist groups such as Svoboda and the “Right Sector” to overthrow the Ukrainian pro-Russian regime and establish directly to Russia’s borders, a military regime aligned with NATO. The aggressive escalation of NATO, initiated despite warnings from the Kremlin to the fact that it negates the fundamental laws of an extremely fragile peace in Europe, could trigger a war between NATO and Russia, a large military power with a massive arsenal of nuclear weapons. Tuesday, the day after the decision by NATO to halt cooperation with Russia, the largest German newspaper subscription, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, bluntly stated that “NATO now sees Russia as an enemy.” In an interview with the German weekly Die Zeit, which was published under the title “An invasion is possible,”.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has required the installation of a missile shield and the deployment of NATO troops in Poland. “Our accounting formula is simple,” he has said. “The physical presence of NATO in Poland is better than any written guarantees. It is also in the interest of Europe because here in the East, there is the real external border of the Union [EU].” Driven by the growing geostrategic and socio-economic crisis of the global financial order, the imperialist powers in NATO’s continued escalation is aimed at ruthlessly consolidate their grip on Eastern Europe and justify the massive diversion of funds for military purposes. The unfounded argument of an imminent invasion of Ukraine by Russia is a pretext to strengthen forces in Eastern Europe and to develop plans for war against Russia.
In an interview with Reuters and the Wall Street Journal, the supreme commander of NATO Europe, Air Chief Marshal, Philip Breedlove said that 40,000 Russian troops were massed at the Ukrainian border. He warned of an imminent Russian attack: “We believe that the army is ready to launch and it could achieve its goals in three to five days if it received the order”. While Western leaders and the media have provided no evidence of the alleged massive Russian reinforcement to the Ukrainian border, they hysterically brandish the threat of an imminent Russian invasion.
In describing the situation as “extremely worrying,” Breedlove warned that the Russian army has “all that is necessary for a successful incursion into the Ukraine, if the decision was taken. “He suggested that Russia could try to invade the entire southern and eastern Ukraine, perhaps in order to create a land corridor to Transnistria, a Russian-speaking region that is separated from Moldova , and advance to the Western Ukraine. Breedlove has outlined NATO projects to encircle Russia by arming States of Eastern Europe to the teeth and significantly increasing NATO military spending: “We will develop air, land and sea ‘safeguards’, and we’ll make sure to position these ‘guarantees’ in the entire area where we will be exposed: in the north, center and south ….And now the hardest discussion that we will have with our allies is to ascertain what will be the terrestrial component that will constitute the guarantees that will lead us to this new paradigm.”
Such projects would involve the militarization of Europe as well as deep attacks against freedom rights in the imperialist countries to finance the massive military escalation that NATO is in the process of planning. The New World Order coldly marches on…and without hesitation.
Leave a Reply