Thursday October 21, 2021
Nuclear weapons also play a role
NATO seals plan to deter Russia
The western military alliance NATO agrees on a new plan to put Russia in its place. The cause is concerns about Russian attacks in the Baltic States or the Black Sea region. Moscow, on the other hand, sees the plans as a threat to the stability of Europe.
NATO defense ministers have agreed on a new master plan to deter Russia. “We are further strengthening our alliance with better and modernized plans,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg after the ministerial meeting. The strategy aims to be prepared for simultaneous attacks by Russia in the Baltic States and the Black Sea region. NATO officials stress that they do not assume that a Russian attack is imminent.
The government in Moscow rejects all accusations that it is behaving aggressively and, for its part, accuses NATO of destabilizing Europe with its strategic preparations. Western diplomats counter this by saying that the “Concept for Deterrence and Defense in the Euro-Atlantic Area” and the associated implementation strategy are necessary because Russia is developing advanced weapon systems and moving troops and armaments closer to NATO’s external borders.
The deterrent scenarios also revolve around the use of nuclear weapons. “That is the way of deterrence,” said Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on Deutschlandfunk. “We have to make it very clear to Russia that in the end – and that is also the deterrent doctrine – we are ready to use such means so that it has a deterrent effect beforehand and nobody gets the idea, for example the areas over the Baltic States or in the Black Sea to attack NATO partners. ” That is the core idea of NATO and will be adapted to the current behavior of Russia.
“Increasing attacks”
“We are seeing violations of the air space over the Baltic states in particular, but also increasing attacks around the Black Sea,” said Kramp-Karrenbauer. In September, Russia and its ally Belarus held military exercises that alerted Baltic NATO members. According to representatives of Western governments, around 100,000 Russian soldiers were gathered on the border with Ukraine in May – more than since the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014. Most recently, Russia threatened NATO with consequences if the Western military alliance took further steps to accept Ukraine.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday that Russia had no right to prevent Ukraine’s efforts to join NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Austin practically paved the way for Ukraine to join NATO. Even if there is no formal admission, NATO is already promoting the military development of Ukraine, Putin said. This poses a threat to Russia.
In any case, recent tensions with Russia overshadow the Brussels summit of NATO defense ministers. Moscow announced on Monday that it would end the work of the Russian representation to NATO in Brussels for the time being. In addition, the activities of the NATO information office and that of the NATO military mission in Moscow are to be suspended. Russia was reacting to a NATO decision to withdraw accreditation from eight employees of the Russian NATO mission in Brussels on suspicion of espionage. It was also decided to reduce the maximum size of the Russian representation from 20 to 10 people.