RIA Novosti: Diplomat says Russia to react to NATO build-up in Europe “if necessary”

(RIA Novosti – January 13, 2015) Russia is carefully monitoring how NATO is reinforcing its military presence in Eastern Europe, and is ready to take action in response if necessary, Mikhail Ulyanov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department of Security and Disarmament Issues, told RIA Novosti (part of the Russian state-owned International News Agency Rossiya Segodnya) on 13 January.

“We are carefully following what is happening in the Eastern European members of NATO after the summit in Wales [on 4-5 September 2014]. And we will draw our own inferences and conclusions, and also take corresponding actions if necessary,” Ulyanov was quoted as saying.

In 1997 NATO and Russia signed the Founding Act, according to which the alliance is obliged not to permanently deploy substantial combat forces on the territories of its new members, Ulyanov said. Now the legitimate question arises as to whether NATO’s current actions fall under this obligation, he said.

“The Americans in particular and NATO members say that their plans do no suppose deploying military resources that could be called substantial. But the point is that the definition of ‘substantial combat forces’ and ‘substantial combat resources’ is lacking in the Founding Act, although we have proposed several times developing one, including in the context of the CFE (Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe),” Ulyanov said.

NATO representatives avoid talking about this all the time, citing the fact that it will be about “contingent rotation”, he said.

“This is a very dubious thesis reminiscent of mockery, because from the military point of view, there is no big difference between constantly rotating contingents and their permanent deployment,” Ulyanov said.

[featured image is file photo]