Russian Sabre Rattling

[Jason]

Russia’s defense minister has said NATO’s increasing ties with Sweden and Finland are “worrying” and such actions force his nation to “take response measures.”

“A treaty was signed in May that provides for [Sweden and Finland’s] full participation in the exercises of the alliance and the possibility of using its command-and-control systems for troops and weapons,” Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday, according to state-run media. “In exchange, NATO received unrestricted access to the airspace and territorial waters of these countries.”

Shoigu said that “such steps by Western colleagues” work to harm the current system of global security and create “greater mistrust, forcing us to take response measures.”

Following a NATO summit in Brussels earlier this month, the alliance’s heads of state and government met with leaders of Sweden and Finland to “discuss shared security challenges,” according to an official statement.

“This trend clearly indicates that NATO countries are trying in every possible way to prevent Russia from emerging as a geopolitical competitor, especially with its own allies,” Shoigu argued.

NATO members and other European nations have eyed Moscow’s apparent ambitions to expand warily, especially since a 2014 decision to support separatist rebels in Ukraine and annex the Crimean Peninsula. Many European nations—including Sweden, Poland, Norway, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania—have expressed concern that Russia could make similar moves against their sovereignty.

https://www.newsweek.com/russian-defens ... to-1040806

[Jason]

Winter is Coming...

[laklak]

so it begins.png (341.78 KiB) Viewed 741 times

[JimC]

Putin as Sauron...

His reach has indeed grown long...

Where are our brave little hobbits, creeping into Moscow to assassinate him?

[laklak]

Nasty, capitalist Hobbitses.