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NATO rebuts Russia claim

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered troops deployed in regions near Ukraine to return to their home bases, the Kremlin said Monday.

The move appears to indicate Putin's intention to de-escalate the crisis over Ukraine, the worst in Russia's relations with the West since the end of the Cold War.

But NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters Monday the military alliance has "not seen any evidence at all that the Russians have started withdrawal of troops from the Ukrainian borders."

He said that NATO remains open to a political dialogue with Moscow, and has proposed holding a meeting at the NATO-Russia Council next week.

If we, one day, see clear evidence of a meaningful Russian withdrawal of troops from the Ukrainian borders, I would be the very first to welcome it, because it would be a step in the right direction.

The West has protested the deployment of 40,000 Russian troops near the border with Ukraine, seeing it as a possible preparation for grabbing more land after the annexation of Crimea in March.

Putin has made similar commitments in recent weeks concerning his troops in the region.

Putin has previously said he has ordered troops to return from the area near the Ukraine border, but the United States and NATO said they saw no sign of a pullout and have threatened more sanctions if Russia tries to derail Ukraine's presidential vote set for Sunday.

The Russian Defense Ministry insisted that there were no buildup near the border, saying that the troops in the regions in western Russia are involved in regular training.

Putin went one step further Monday, ordering Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to pull out forces involved in such training in the Rostov, Belgorod and Bryansk regions, according to a statement released by the Kremlin.

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NATO rebuts Russia claim

NATO chief sees no retreat by Russian forces near Ukraines border

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STUTTGART, Germany NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen rejected Russias claim on Monday that it was pulling massed troops back from the border with Ukraine, where unrest and Moscows annexation of the Crimean Peninsula have refocused the 28-nation NATO alliance on security in its own backyard.

NATO has dismissed previous claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin about the withdrawal of troops from Ukrainian border, in some cases offering satellite imagery to challenge his assertions.

I think it is the third Putin statement on withdrawal of Russian troops, but so far we havent seen any withdrawal of troops at all, Rasmussen said during a Monday news conference in Brussels.

Now, NATO must focus on a re-emerging Russian threat, Rasmussen said.

Western governments have accused Russia of massing 40,000 troops near the Ukrainian border in an effort to intimidate the new regime in Kiev.

We have seen the Russian military doctrine that NATO is considered an adversary, Rasmussen sad. And I think we should take that seriously, its not just words. So we have to adapt accordingly to review our defense plans, enhance our exercises and also consider appropriate deployments.

As the May 25 Ukrainian presidential election nears, Rasmussen called on Russia to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine, where a Russian separatist movement broke out after the February ouster of pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych. Moscow and Western countries have traded charges that other side has interfered in Ukraines internal affairs.

For NATO, Russias annexation of Crimea has focused attention on bolstering the alliances security presence in eastern Europe and the Baltics. This includes such measures as more fighter jet rotations through the Baltics, more war ships in regional waters and assorted war games with ground troops.

However, Rasmussen also warned of more potential instability in other parts of eastern Europe, including Moldova and Georgia, two countries that are seeking closer ties with the European Union.

We have seen Russia put a lot of pressure on countries in their near neighborhood as they are approaching the European Union for progress, Rasmussen said.

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NATO chief sees no retreat by Russian forces near Ukraines border

NATO Plants Flag In Uzbekistan

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Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov meets NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on a visit to Brussels in 2011. (photo: NATO)

NATO formally opened its liaison office in Uzbekistan on Friday, a year after it started working and amid heightened Russian rhetoric about the western alliance encroaching on its backyard.

The opening itself was not a big deal: it only formalized a move that happened last year, which was itself described by NATO officials as just a "rotation" of NATO's representation in Central Asia from Astana to Tashkent. (NATO calls the new structure in Tashkent a "liaison office," while the preferred phrase in the Russian-language press seems to be the much more impressive-sounding "staff headquarters.") Nevertheless, the opening ceremony was held in a very different geopolitical atmosphere than obtained last year, and so it was inevitable that people would seek to try to figure out what it really meant.

Uzbekistan is unmistakably taking a different path than that of its neighbors. While Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan are all (to varying degrees) participating in Russia's economic and military integration schemes, Uzbekistan has resisted. And strategic concerns have overridden Western qualms about human rights, notes Tolganay Umbetaliyeva, the director of the Kazakhstan-based Central Asian Fund for the Development of Democracy. "In spite of the fact that after the Andijan events of 2005 relations between Uzbekistan and the West sharply deteriorated, their recent improvement can be seen as the West's response to the various integration processes of the post-Soviet Central Asian states and Russia in various spheres," she told RFE/RL.

Opposing Russia may be Tashkent's interest, and it may be a nice side benefit for NATO, but NATO would likely be very little interested in Uzbekistan if it weren't an important country for NATO and American military logistics for the war in Afghanistan. "The most important part of our cooperation remains the transit of cargo through Uzbekistan. And we are grateful to Uzbekistan for that," said James Appathurai, NATO's special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, at the opening ceremony.

And Appathurai, in an interview with RFE/RL, denied there was a geopolitical component to the office:

Appathurai said NATO's partnership with Central Asian nations is not in competition with their relationship with Russia.

He said, "We are not here to compete with anyone or to pressure anyone to make any sort of changes to their political orientation."

Moscow may not see it that way, said Kazakhstan analyst Daniyar Kosnazarov in a facebook post: "Moscow, of course, is likely to react strenuously to the news that a NATO headquarters will be in Uzbekistan. This will be explained, primarily, by the fact that Tashkent renounced its membership in the CSTO." There doesn't seem to have been any official reaction yet from Moscow; it also should be noted that just two years ago Russia itself allowed NATO to set up a transit hub in the city of Ulyanovsk, though it was never regularly used.

Uzbekistan's official news agency Jahon naturally downplayed any geopolitical meaning and described the function of the office as "facilitating practical cooperation of the North Atlantic alliance with partners in the region in various directions, including defense planning and analysis, providing support to alliance operations, military education and preparation, civil emergency planning, cooperation on scientific and environmental issues, and public diplomacy."

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NATO Plants Flag In Uzbekistan

May 16 2014 Breaking News Putin Tests Nuclear Forces & NATO expansion – Video

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May 16 2014 Breaking News Putin Tests Nuclear Forces NATO expansion
May 16 2014 Breaking News Putin Tests Nuclear Forces NATO Expansion - The Russian military fired a Nuclear Topol intercontinental ballistic missile from its northern test site in Plesetsk,...

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May 16 2014 Breaking News Putin Tests Nuclear Forces & NATO expansion - Video

NATO chief urges Europeans to spend more on defense amid Ukraine crisis

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NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen delivers a statement to media after meeting with Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico in Bratislava, Slovakia, Thursday, May 15, 2014. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)The Associated Press

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, left, shake hands with Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico as they meet in Bratislava, Slovakia, Thursday, May 15, 2014. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)The Associated Press

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia NATO's secretary general is pushing European countries to invest more in defense to better cope with crises such as the Ukraine conflict, but some governments remain resistant.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen told participants in a security conference in Slovakia on Thursday that NATO members that don't spend enough on defense risk being "free-loaders."

He told reporters later that "every ally is expected to play its part toward contributing to our shared security." He says the Ukraine crisis shows "we have to invest more in defense."

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he would try to increase military spending toward the 2 percent of gross domestic product that NATO wants, but said it's a "very sensitive issue" as his country tries to keep the deficit down.

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NATO chief urges Europeans to spend more on defense amid Ukraine crisis


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