by Robert Whitcomb | Jun 12, 2016 | Event Updates
Alexei Pushkov, the Foreign Affairs Committee chairman of the lower house of the Russian parliament, said that it would be no surprise if the G7 nations extended sanctions against Russia for its occupation of Crimea and its war against the pro-Western government of Ukraine in the eastern part of that country, reports Sputnik News, which acts as a mouthpiece for the Russian government of Vladimir Putin.
But then, the G7 leaders at their May 26-27 summit in Japan had already make it quite clear that the sanctions would be extended.
“The signals from the West on the extension of sanctions are not a surprise. The decision was taken at the G7 [summit]. Since then, other options have been excluded,” Mr. Pushkov wrote on Twitter.
To read the Sputnik News article, hit this link.
by Robert Whitcomb | Jun 10, 2016 | AI World Society Summit
(June 13th, 2016) Tensions between NATO and Russia, already high, have gone a bit higher with the vaguely threatening remarks by the Russian Foreign Ministry that Russian leader Vladimir Putin would respond to a U.S. Navy destroyer’s entry into the Black Sea with unspecified measures, Reuters and other news media report. Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria, all of which border on the Black Sea, are members of NATO.
Russian state media reported that the USS Porter, a U.S. naval destroyer, entered the Black Sea a few days ago, a move that state media said angered Moscow because the warship was recently fitted with a new missile system.
U.S. Navy officials told reporters on June 8 that the U.S. would also have two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean this month ahead of a July NATO summit in Warsaw as Washington continues to seek to address Russia’s intensifying military activities in eastern Europe and Syria.
For more details, hit this link.
by Robert Whitcomb | Jun 7, 2016 | AI World Society Summit
(June 13th, 2016) An increasingly militaristic and aggressive Russia is building new military sites along what the Kremlin sees as its western frontline in a growing confrontation with NATO.
At the same time the NATO alliance is staging major military exercises and increasing deployments on its eastern flank in response to Russian aggression against Ukraine and threatening actions by the Russian air force over and near the Baltic Sea.
Russia and NATO member states share borders around the Baltic Sea; further south Ukraine and Belarus separate the two blocs.
Russia has pulled out of the treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe, a post-Cold War pact that limits the deployment of troops in Europe. This makes it feel freer to move extra troops and military equipment to its western border.
For more information, hit this link.
by Robert Whitcomb | Jun 6, 2016 | Initiative
(June 13th, 2016) NATO’s largest war game in Europe since the end of the old Cold War is underway in Poland, as alliance members seek to show strength in response to concerns about Russia’s aggression.
NATO allies have welcomed the 10-day military exercise, involving 31,000 troops and thousands of vehicles from 24 countries, although some defense experts warn that any mishap/miscalculation could prompt an offensive reaction from Moscow.
Hit this link for more information.
by Robert Whitcomb | Jun 1, 2016 | Initiative
(June 6th, 2016) As Russia becomes more aggressive and implies that it might attack NATO with tactical nuclear weapons, the leadership of the alliance is trying to encourage deadbeat members to step up and pay more attention to the threat from Vladimir Putin’s aggressive dictatorship.
NATO’s leadership is trying to get all member nations to spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense, which is the long-established but often ignored guideline.
There has been a gradual move toward higher NATO defense spending since Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine, attacked the eastern part of that nation, harassed NATO ships and planes in the Baltic, unleashed cyberattacks against NATO members and showed its growing war-making expertise in its highly effective bombing to help Syrian dictator Bashir Assad.
Still, a few NATO members continue to cut defense spending. And while the alliance is carrying more military training and planning exercises in eastern and central Europe, they are little compared to what the Russians are doing. Read this New York Times story.
by Robert Whitcomb | May 28, 2016 | Initiative
(May 30th, 2016) German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on May 26 that the Group of Seven will not end sanctions on Russia over its involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine and its seizure of Crimea.
“For me it’s too early to give the all clear,” Ms. Merkel said in Japan, where she was attending the G7 Summit.
“There is no change of position to be expected” from the G7, she said. Earlier that day European Council President Donald Tusk, also at the summit, said that the G7 needed to take a “clear and tough stance” toward Russia for its moves in Ukraine — as well as toward China for its controversial claims and militarization in the South China Sea.
“The test of our credibility at the G7 is our ability to defend the common values that we share,” he told reporters at the Japan talks. “This test will only pass if we take a clear and tough stance on every topic of our discussions here.”
Ukraine and its Western allies believe that Russia seized and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and fomented an insurgency in the country’s east to keep a grip over the former member of the Soviet Union, and especially to prevent it from seeking membership in the European Union and NATO.
