(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ott Ummelas – May 7, 2014) NATO is prepared to counter non-conventional warfare used by Russia to annex Crimea, Estonian Defense Minister Sven Mikser said. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 1949 founding treaty “can be effectively used to counter new threats” and doesn’t need to be revised, Mikser said in an interview yesterday in the Estonian […]
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(Interfax – April 28, 2014) The Russian authorities are considering the possibility of closing the NATO Information Office in Moscow, Kommersant reported on Monday. “It’s a probable response because we are not managing to find a common language with NATO in the current situation,” a source told Kommersant. Sources close to the presidential administration told Kommersant no final decision on […]
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(Interfax – Groznyy, April 23, 2014) Russia and NATO countries have reached a level of direct confrontation, Nikolay Bordyuzha, secretary-general of the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization], told journalists on Wednesday [23 April]. “In effect, thanks to the actions of certain NATO states, we have reached a level of direct confrontation,” Bordyuzha told journalists in Groznyy on Wednesday after a […]
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Supreme Allied Commander Europe http://aco.nato.int/saceur2013/blog/who-are-the-men-behind-the-masks.aspx 17 April 2014 Who Are the Men Behind the Masks? By General Philip Breedlove NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and Commander of U.S. European Command. [DJ: Headline in Military Times : “4-star: Armed attackers in Ukraine are Russian troops in disguise”] It’s hard to fathom that groups of armed men in masks suddenly sprang […]
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BRUSSELS, April 16 (RIA Novosti) – NATO will intensify air patrols over Eastern Europe and dispatch extra ships to the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas due to the crisis in Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after a meeting of alliance ambassadors in Brussels. “We will have more planes in the air, more ships on the water, and more […]
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(Business New Europe MOSCOW BLOG – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – April 15, 2014) The Kremlin is very unhappy about the EU’s bid to pull Ukraine into its economic orbit through the Association Agreement that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych failed to sign in November. But what really gives Moscow the willies is Nato’s unrelenting march eastwards over the […]
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ANKARA, Turkey, April 11 (RIA Novosti) – The US guided-missile destroyer Donald Cook and French intelligence warship Dupuy de Lôme have entered the Black Sea, the Turkish newspaper Sabah reported Friday. According to the US military command, the dispatch of the Donald Cook destroyer was a move to reassure the country’s NATO allies in the region amid heightened tensions due […]
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(Stratfor.com – George Friedman – April 8, 2014) George Friedman is the Chairman of Stratfor. Ever since the end of the Cold War, there has been an assumption that conventional warfare between reasonably developed nation-states had been abolished. During the 1990s, it was expected that the primary purpose of the military would be operations other than war, such as peacekeeping, […]
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(Interfax – April 4, 2014) NATO’s decision to suspend cooperation with Russia gives Moscow the right to suspend NATO transit to Afghanistan across Russian territory, Federation Council Defense and Security Committee Chairman Viktor Ozerov said. “NATO is transporting armaments, military hardware and servicemen to Afghanistan across our territory. If our cooperation comes to a halt, we will have the right […]
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(Interfax – April 2, 2014) NATO’s decision to suspend cooperation with Russia will harm Afghanistan, Moscow’s envoy to NATO has said. Interfax news agency quoted Aleksandr Grushko saying: “Above all, NATO’s decision will harm Afghans.” He said that the decision was counterproductive. “As a member of the international community, we carry particular responsibility for the preservation of international peace and […]
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MOSCOW, April 3 (RIA Novosti) – The Pentagon’s recent talk of suspending anti-missile consultations with Russia is hot air, as the negotiations lost their significance long ago, experts have told RIA Novosti. The Russia-NATO missile shield talks have been treading water for years, ever since the two agreed at a 2010 Lisbon summit to cooperate on the European project. The […]
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MOSCOW. April 3 (Interfax) – Russia will keep a close eye on how the United States and Turkey follow the principles of the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits, which set the rules for warships’ presence in the Black Sea, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “We have the Montreux Convention, which introduces absolutely clear-cut criteria that restrict […]
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MOSCOW, April 2 (RIA Novosti) – NATO’s decision to suspend cooperation with Russia resembles Cold War-style sword swinging, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Wednesday. The 28-nation NATO bloc announced Tuesday it will suspend all practical contacts with Moscow, in a move to put further pressure on Russia following its reunification with Crimea. “The decision of the NATO Council of […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Patrick Donahue – April 1, 2014) Germany’s top diplomat said Ukraine won’t join NATO and urged Russia to move troops away from the Ukrainian border, saying it would be a “small signal” that the crisis is easing. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his French and Polish counterparts, Laurent Fabius and Radoslaw Sikorski, said the European Union […]
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(Stratfor.com – Geopolitical Weekly – George Friedman – Tuesday, March 25, 2014 – 03:08) As I discussed last week, the fundamental problem that Ukraine poses for Russia, beyond a long-term geographical threat, is a crisis in internal legitimacy. Russian President Vladimir Putin has spent his time in power rebuilding the authority of the Russian state within Russia and the authority of […]
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MOSCOW, March 24 (RIA Novosti) – The signing of a political pact between Ukraine and the European Union is a hasty step which points to the prospect of closer military ties between Kiev and NATO, a Russian foreign ministry source said Monday. “The political provisions of the association deal pave the way for further entrenchment of Ukraine into the foreign […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – February 4, 2014) Russia, Asia and the Middle East are fueling a global upswing in defense expenditure, even as the member nations of the NATO alliance continue to cut their military budgets, according to international consultancy IHS Jane’s annual review, released Monday. But while other countries from list of top military spenders […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, February 2, 2014) Russia has been waiting for two years for proposals from NATO on conventional arms control in Europe and further delay will reduce the chances of any possible talks being successful, Mikhail Ulyanov, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Security and Disarmament Department, has said. “As far as we know the alliance is currently […]
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(Interfax – January 28, 2014) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen are ready to search for solutions to the European missile defense problem. They have also discussed possible assistance to the UN/OPCW mission dealing with Syrian chemical weapons, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “Problems and the prospective development of Russia-NATO relations have been discussed. […]
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(RIA Novosti – December 31, 2013) Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov has said that the scenario of NATO’s Steadfast Jazz 2013 military exercise which took place on 2-9 November has “surprised” Moscow. He made the statement in an interview with Russian state news agency RIA Novosti published on 31 December. In the same interview he also spoke about the […]
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(Interfax – December 18, 2013) Moscow stands for NATO-CSTO cooperation in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during the Government Hour at the Federation Council on Wednesday. “We think it would be useful to finally start practical cooperation between the CSTO and NATO,” he said. The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) give much […]
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MOSCOW, December 16 (RIA Novosti) Russia confirmed Monday that it has deployed tactical ballistic missiles near its borders with NATO but said the move did not violate international agreements. Bild newspaper in Germany reported over the weekend that Russia had “quietly” moved 10 Iskander-M (SS-26 Stone) missile systems into its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad and along its border with […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) – The agreements of the Sextet and Tehran on the Iranian nuclear program call into question if there is any sense of the missile shield in Europe being created by NATO, head of the Russian State Duma committee on foreign affairs Alexei Pushkov said. “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin has put the question correctly: the issue of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – December 5, 2013) BRUSSELS At a meeting with NATO counterparts on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov slammed NATO’s response to recent protests in Ukraine and said last month’s deal on Iran’s nuclear program renders the need for missile defense in Europe obsolete. In response to a joint resolution issued by […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yuri Paniyev, special to RBTH – December 3, 2013) Syria, Afghanistan and NATO’s European missile defense system will top the agenda at the Russia-NATO Council session scheduled to begin on Dec.3. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his counterparts from the NATO member states are expected to exchange opinions on issues concerning Euro-Atlantic […]
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BRUSSELS. Dec 2 (Interfax) – The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) cannot be restored the way it used to be; the treaty became totally obsolete, which was declared back in 1996 when a decision on the parameters of its crucial modernization was made, Russian Permanent Representative to NATO Alexander Grushko told Interfax in Brussels on Monday. “An […]
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(Interfax – November 29, 2013) Missile defence is the main irritant in relations between the defence ministries of Russia and NATO member states, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoliy Antonov has said, privately-owned Russian military news agency Interfax-AVN reported on 29 November. “The prospects for cooperation between Russia and NATO are very great. If there was the political will from the […]
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BRUSSELS,. Nov 26 (Interfax) – NATO does not see reasons to review the European missile shield plan in connection with the Iran nuclear program deal. NATO’s missile defense project is not intended to provide defense from a concrete country, a source in the NATO headquarters told Interfax in Brussels. What is meant here is defense from a real and growing […]
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ROME, November 25 (RIA Novosti) Implementation of a deal on Iran’s nuclear program reached in Geneva this weekend will make the US missile defense system in Europe unnecessary, Russia’s foreign minister said Monday. “If the agreement on Iran is implemented, the reason named as a necessity to establish a missile defense system in Europe will drop away,” Sergei Lavrov […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) – Russia is not against Ukraine becoming an associated EU member, but it would object if Ukraine decided to join NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “We are not against Ukraine’s sovereign choice, whatever it is. We are talking about something absolutely different. If we heard that Ukraine joins NATO, then we would really be against […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 15 (Interfax) – The Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed surprise about the statements made by some Polish and Baltic countries leaders saying that the NATO training Steadfast Jazz 2013 indicates the allies’ readiness to defend the Eastern European countries from threats from the East. “Is it really appropriate to speak seriously about any threats of attack against NATO […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, November 12, 2013) NATO is changing its philosophy – the alliance is turning from an organization for ensuring defence of its members into an organization ensuring their security, Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Thrasyvoulos Terry Stamatopoulos has said at a meeting with head of the Federation Council’s international committee Mikhail Margelov. “This is […]
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(The Moscow Times – Alexander Vershbow, Deputy Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – article also appeared at themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/nato-missile-defense-is-no-threat-to-russia/489487.html) On Oct. 29, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported that “according to NATO information,” surface- and sea-launched interceptor missiles in the U.S. national missile defense system “are designed for the total destruction of the warheads of short-, intermediate- and intercontinental-range ballistic missiles.” […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimws.com – Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber – November 11, 2013) Terrorism and NATO’s expansion at Russia’s borders are the country’s two main security threats, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Saturday, hinting at a renewal of the armed forces’ strategic and doctrinal direction after years of failed reforms. During an interview broadcasted on Rossia 1, Shoigu cited Syria, Afghanistan, Mali […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Viktor Litovkin, special to RBTH – October 29, 2013) At a NATO-Russia Council meeting in Brussels, the Russian Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu offered the international community assistance in destroying Syrian chemical weapons and expressed his hope to resume Russia-NATO dialogue on ABMs in Europe. Last week, Brussels hosted a meeting of the […]
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ROSTOV-ON-DON. Oct 28 (Interfax) – Russia is ready for constructive dialogue and compromise on missile defense with the United States and NATO. “We are ready for constructive dialogue with the United States and NATO. We are open to compromise. However, we will not pretend that talk of the (missile defense) system the Americans are creating does not need any changes […]
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MOSCOW, October 23 (RIA Novosti) Russia aims to cooperate with Western powers on security issues but needs guarantees that a US missile shield in Eastern Europe would not target its nuclear forces, Russia’s defense minister said Wednesday. “We have failed to work jointly on this issue. The European missile defense programs are developing, and our [Russia’s] concerns are not […]
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MOSCOW, October 22 (RIA Novosti) Ukraine and Georgia will not accede to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) next year, its top official said Tuesday, dismissing speculation that two of Russia’s most strategically important neighbors might be joining. Ukraine has decided to abandon its long-standing bid to join NATO, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told journalists in Brussels on […]
» Read more(Interfax – KYIV, October 17, 2013) Only 20% of Ukrainians support the country’s accession to NATO, according to the Rating sociological group, which held its poll on September 26 – October 6, 2013. A report published on the Rating website said that two-thirds of Ukrainians thought that Ukraine should not join NATO and 15% were hesitant. A relative majority of […]
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(Interfax – BRUSSELS, October 16, 2013) Relations between Russia and NATO have scaled back on certain tracks, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “Positive results are hard to win in practice in certain areas, and progress was even reversed on some tracks,” he said at the Royal Institute of International relations (the Egmont Institute) in Brussels. “I mean, for instance, […]
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(Interfax – August 27, 2013) The likelihood of Western military intervention in Syria is very high, Sergey Karaganov, honorary chairman of the presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy (SVOP) think-tank, has said. “Unfortunately, the concentration of troops in the region is such that a war may start. The USA may strike within the next two months, even […]
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(Interfax – Zhukovskiy, Moscow Region, August 27, 2013) In case of a military operation in Syria, Western countries will not be able to secure an easy victory since Syrian troops are armed with Russian Buk-M2E air defence systems and other air defence means, a military-diplomatic source told Interfax AVN news agency on Tuesday (27 August). “If the US army, together […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 15, 2013) A year after Russia opened a transit hub in Ulyanovsk to help in NATO’s pullout from Afghanistan, not a single alliance member has used it, a Russian newspaper said Thursday. “Russian authorities insisted, when opening the hub, that only Russian transport companies service its operations. And they hiked the prices so much that […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 14, 2013) The intended pullout of the NATO-led forces from Afghanistan starting in 2014 is “too hasty,” Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister said Wednesday adding that Russia will reinforce its military bases in Central Asia ahead of the withdrawal. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which has been fighting the radical Islamist Taliban movement in […]
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(Interfax – TBILISI, June 26, 2013) Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has said that Georgia’s accession to NATO is a choice of the Georgian people and it does not matter whether Russia likes it or not. At a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen Ivanishvili answered the question about how Georgia intends to improve relations with […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 105 – Roger McDermott – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – June 4, 2013) The Moscow European Security Conference on May 23-24 offered an opportunity for a wide range of defense officials and experts from member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to exchange views on the future of Euro-Atlantic security with their Russian […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 28, 2013) The U.S. side has voiced quite concrete and serious proposals on the missile shield issue in Europe, however Moscow thinks they are not enough, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said in an interview with Echo of Moscow (Ekho Moskvy) radio station. “We offer to conclude (an agreement) on legally binding obligations of non-direction […]
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(Interfax – May 23, 2013) Russia is not planning to return to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), Deputy Defence Minister Anatoliy Antonov has said, as quoted by the Russian Interfax news agency on 23 May. “Today, Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu said clearly that this mechanism, the CFE, which we often argue about in Russia and NATO, […]
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(Interfax – May 17, 2013) Russia and NATO are boosting their cooperation in a number of areas, however Russia still has concerns about US and NATO European missile defence plans, Russian Deputy Chief of General Staff Col-Gen Aleksandr Postnikov-Streltsov has said. Interfax news agency carried the comments that Postnikov-Streltsov made after a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council (RNC) in Brussels […]
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(RIA Novosti – WASHINGTON, May 1, 2013) US Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that Washington supports Georgia’s aspirations to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), ambitions that Moscow has repeatedly warned will only inflame tensions in the South Caucasus. “We are very supportive of Georgia’s aspirations with respect to NATO and Europe,” Kerry said ahead of […]
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