Russia responds to US, NATO moving troops to its border
US and NATO are carrying out active military activities near Russia’s borders. Over 40 000 people and 15 000 units of military equipment and weapons will be deployed on Russia’s western border according to defence minister Sergey Shoygu.
“In Poland and the Baltic states, US forces are being reinforced … the intensity of aerial reconnaissance has been doubled compared to last year, and the intensity of naval reconnaissance has increased by one-and-a-half times,” he said.
The minister has accused the US and its allies of carrying out active military activities “with a clear anti-Russian orientation”, including up to 40 major military training events in Europe every year.
“In the spring of this year, the joint armed forces of NATO began the largest exercise in the last 30 years, Defender Europe 2021,” he said.
In response, Russia redeployed two army and three airborne units to its western border “to counter the threat.” Shoigu said the Russian response activity was provoked by what he said were efforts by the US and its NATO allies to beef up their forces near Russia’s borders, “threatening” Russia.
The US has also notified that two US warships were going to the Black Sea on 14 April and 15 April and stay there until 4-5May. The US navy ships have made regular visits to the Black Sea in past years, vexing Moscow. Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov denounced the latest deployment as “openly provocative,” adding: “American ships have absolutely nothing to do near our shores. Seeing itself as the Queen of the Seas, the US should realise that the risks of various incidents are very high. We warn the US that it should stay away from our Black Sea coast for its own benefit.”
One of the distinctive features of the modern Western political narrative with regard to NATO is an almost total misunderstanding of how the alliance is perceived in Russia. First and foremost, the Western political establishment seems blithely unaware of the fact that the issue of NATO is the main stumbling block in RussianWestern relations, and that any detente is impossible while that obstacle remains unresolved.
In Russia, NATO is generally viewed as part of the American war machine and an instrument of US global dominance. That view is shared by almost the entire Russian political spectrum. In fact, the same view also prevails among NATO members from eastern Europe, where the alliance is seen as an instrument of US influence and US defence assurances. That explains why any NATO enlargement is automatically regarded in Russia as a ruse to deploy US forces in close proximity to Russian borders; NATO’s own role in that ruse is seen as a cover story - nothing more.
The ongoing deployment of NATO forces in eastern Europe with the ostensible purpose of “containing and deterring Moscow” is seen in Russia as another piece of evidence to confirm that view. These new deployments are conducted under direct US leadership, and most of the new forces deployed are American.
The military presence of other NATO members in places such as the Baltic states is insignificant and purely symbolic. Washington and NATO describe these deployments as a “clear signal to Moscow.” In Moscow itself, that signal is read as clear evidence that all the Russian criticisms and concerns about NATO have always been entirely justified, and that the moderate Russian reaction to NATO’s enlargement in the 1990s and early 2000s was a colossal strategic blunder.
The Russian analytics have always insisted that the only reason for admitting the Baltic states to NATO was to give the United States a new forward-staging post for military deployment against Russia. It now turns out that they were right all along. That is why Russia is now determined not to make the same mistake again; it will do all it can to prevent any further NATO encroachment into former Soviet territory - namely, into Ukraine. The West does not realise that Russia views NATO enlargement as a threat of US forces (potentially including missile systems) deployed ever closer to critical Russian targets.
As a result, Western decisionmakers underestimate the strength of the Russian national consensus on this issue. There is a popular opinion in the West that Russia opposes NATO only because of President Putin’s personal animus. That opinion is a gross and primitive misreading of the situation. Do you remember reaction of USA for deploying some Russian missiles and little quantity of troops near American borders in Cuba in 1962?