NATO’s ongoing exapnsion towards the east as well as its plans for a missile shield in Easter Europe has prompted Russia to issue a warning.
In an interview with Russia Today, leading Russian military official General Nikolai Makarov unveiled serious concerns over the contiuous NATO expansion as well as the missile shield in Easter Europe adding that “This means we [Russia] have to take appropriate measures in response.”
The Russian General also touch on the issue of “double standards” by saying “Last year we withdrew more than 600 tanks, about 600 armored vehicles and about 600 pieces of artillery from the Kaliningrad region. In return we’re getting a buildup of the missile defense system. Double standards alarm us.”
Earlier this month President Dmitry Medvedev signed a new Russian military doctrine that include NATO and the deployment of missile defense systems as the main external threats of war to Russia.
Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced assurances that Russia should not fear NATO’s eastward expansion saying that “2hile Russia faces challenges to its security, NATO is not among them. We want a cooperative NATO-Russia relationship that produces concrete results and draws NATO and Russia closer together.”
“I think one of our tasks in the next years is to convince Russia that NATO enlargement is not a threat to Russia, not the 21st Century Russia, not Russia which has a lot of other pressing needs and concerns – some of them being threats coming from other sources, certainly not from NATO,” she said.
A week earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that “Cold war stereotypes remain strong in Euro-Atlantic policies, NATO is continuing its expansion at the same time as it’s developing a new strategy. One strategy option would see NATO have global reach and the possibility to use force worldwide. This doesn’t exactly comply with the UN charter, and of course we are worried.”
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