Mattis accuses Putin of ‘mischief,’ reaffirms US commitment to NATO – New York Post

Defense Secretary James Mattis accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of making international mischief and reassured allies that the US commitment to NATO is resolute, according to a report on Wednesday.

Saying Russia is challenging the secure and peaceful post-war order, Mattis said Putins making mischief beyond Russian borders will not restore their fortunes or rekindle their hope, apparently referring to the Kremlins meddling in the 2016 presidential election and its involvement in Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reported on Wednesday.

Mattis, a former four-star Marine Corps general, made the comments during an address to German students on the 70th anniversary of the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after World War II. It was his fourth trip to Germany since becoming defense secretary.

He also said the US commitment to Article 5 of the NATO alliance, which says an attack on one member is an attack on all members, is iron-clad.

Mattis highlighted President Trumps request for an increase in the European Reassurance Initiative, a program to improve the readiness of forces in Europe, to $4.8 billion this year from $3.4 billion last year.

Beyond any words in the newspapers, you can judge America by such actions, Mattis said.

He reassured NATO members after some began distancing themselves from the US after Trump during a summit in May lectured them for not paying their fair share for military protection and failed to fully endorse Article 5.

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Mattis accuses Putin of 'mischief,' reaffirms US commitment to NATO - New York Post

NATO allies boost defense spending in the wake of Trump criticism – Washington Post

BRUSSELS NATO allies of the United States plan to boost their defense spending by 4.3 percent this year, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday, a response in part to intense pressure from President Trump that the nations invest more in their militaries.

Trump hasrepeatedly castigated NATO allies for their dependence on the U.S. military for their defense and has at times called into question the basic U.S. security guarantees that have underpinned European stability since World War II.

The increase is a clear demonstration that our alliance stands united in the face of any possible aggression, Stoltenberg told reporters at the NATO headquarters, a day ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers. We have really shifted gears. The trend is up, and we intend to keep it up.

The increase an estimate for 2017 will boost military spending by non-U.S. NATO members to about $295 billion, which is still far less than the United States spends alone. Some of the spending increases were locked in before Trumps election in November.

NATO released only a portion of its updated numbers Wednesday, but its previous estimates for 2016 put the U.S. share of NATO defense spending at 72 percent.

The spending increases come after years of budget cuts up to 2014, as European nations trimmed spending on the belief that after the breakup of the Soviet Union, they no longer need to be ready to fight a war on their own soil.

[Watch: Trump says money is starting to pour into NATO]

But after the Russian seizure of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula in 2014, NATO leaders pledged to increase annual defense spending to 2 percent of their gross domestic product by 2024. At a meeting in May, they said they would come up with concrete plans about how they would get there.

The spending increase announced Wednesday is $12 billion more than 2016 levels, and the increases are also growing bigger 2016 spending was 3.3 percent higher than 2015 levels. Still, only five of NATOs 29 members meet the spending guidelines. Romania plans to get there this year, while Lithuania and Latvia expect to meet the bar in 2018.

Stoltenberg said that he was pleased that NATO nations were making progress.

Many people thought that back in 2014 when we made that decision it was not obvious we were going to deliver, he said in a joint interview after his news conference.

Then-President Barack Obama also hit NATO allies for being overly reliant on the U.S. security umbrella, but Trump took the criticism to a new level on the campaign trail last year. Trump suggested that if a NATO member were attacked, he would first check their spending levels before he decided whether to come to their defense.

(Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

Then, at a meeting of NATO leaders last month that was designed for Trump to reassure his allies of U.S. defense commitments, he instead berated them for their spending and held back from an explicit commitment to Article 5 in the alliances charter, NATOs bedrock principle that an attack on one country is the same as an attack on all.

Trump later made that pledge alongside the Romanian president in the Rose Garden, but the damage was done.

Stoltenberg said he was confident in U.S. pledges to NATO.

For me, America First is not America alone, he said in the interview, echoing a Trump mantra.The best way to secure the United States is to be committed to NATO.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis repeated the U.S. commitment Wednesday, speaking alongside his German counterpart, Defense Minister Ursula Von der Leyen.

The U.S. commitment to our NATO Article 5 security guarantee is ironclad, as demonstrated over decades of our steadfastness and given voice more recently by President Trump before the American people, Mattis said in Garmisch, Germany.

Mattis said that the U.S. commitment to NATO deployments in Eastern European nations that feel threatened by Russia would last at least until 2020. He also pointed to a 42 percent increase in Trumps budget request for European military spending.

Beyond any words in the newspapers, you can judge America by such actions, he said.

As they increase their spending, NATO allies have had to walk a fine political line, since Trump isdeeply unpopular among their voters and any sign of capitulating to U.S. demands can now be toxic at the ballot box.

Allies have sought to cast their spending decisions as a response to their own need to defend themselves. Many of the 2017 spending decisions that together form the increase announced Wednesday were made before Trumps improbable November victory.

I welcome the strong focus of President Trump on defense spending and burden sharing, because it is important that we deliver, Stoltenberg said Wednesday. European allies should invest more in defense not only to please the United States, but they should invest more in defense because it is in their own interests.

Germany, Europes richest nation, has been among the biggest laggards in the alliance, and its spending shortfall has been a major element in the Trump administrations deteriorating relationship with the country.

Von der Leyen, the German defense minister, said Wednesday that her country was working toward the spending goal.

We need to have a fair burden sharing in Europe, von der Leyen said, speaking alongside Mattis in Germany. If we want to have stability in the neighboring regions, we have to take responsibility for it.

Gibbons-Neff reported from Garmisch, Germany.

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NATO allies boost defense spending in the wake of Trump criticism - Washington Post

Former NATO Ambassador Shoots Down Republican Attempts to Blame Obama for the Russian Election Hack – Mother Jones

President Trump has taken no action whatsoever. I thinks that irresponsible.

Dan FriedmanJun. 28, 2017 7:03 PM

Alexei Druzhinin/TASS via ZUMA Press

Two Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee tried Wednesday to pick up on President Donald Trumps recent claim that former President Barack Obama failed to act against Russian interference in the 2016 election. But Nicholas Burns, a former top State Department official testifying at the committees hearing on Russianmeddlingin European elections, was having none of it.

Trump has tried to seize on a recent Washington Post report detailing a struggle by top Obama administration officials to respond to Russian efforts tosupport Trump against Hillary Clinton. Despite previously dismissing reports of Russian interference as a hoax, Trump said the report showed that Obama knew of Russian election meddling and did nothing.

At Wednesdays hearing, Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho) endeavored to back Trumps assertion. Cotton surrendered most of his time for questioning witnesses to instead deliver a statement arguing that Trumps policies on Syria and Afghanistan,along withthe presidents proposal to sharply increase the defense budget, makes him tougher on Russia than Obamadespite Trumps flirtation with rolling back the Russia sanctions that Obama imposed.

In his prepared testimony, Burns, who served as ambassador to NATO and held other posts at the State Department under President George W. Bush, ripped Trump for denying the undeniable fact that Russia interfered in our elections.

Given President Trumps weak and ill-advised views toward Russia, Burns said, it is prudent for the Senate and House to insist on a process of congressional review of Russia sanctions so that President Trump cannot relax them.

Despite that, Risch attempted to hone in on Burns more modest earlier statement, that the Obama administration should have reacted more quickly and vigorously to Russian hacking. Risch asked the former ambassador to confirm that Obama was president when Russian hacking efforts occurred and was aware that this was going on.

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Former NATO Ambassador Shoots Down Republican Attempts to Blame Obama for the Russian Election Hack - Mother Jones

Ex-nuke commanders: Talk to North Korea, open NATO-Russia … – Politico

A man passes by a TV news program in May in South Korea showing a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The letters read: "North Korea launched a missile on April 29." | AP Photo

By Bryan Bender

06/28/2017 10:46 AM EDT

Updated 06/28/2017 01:36 PM EDT

An international group of ex-nuclear commanders Wednesday issued the first in a series of recommendations to world leaders to head off the rising threat of a nuclear war calling on the Trump administration to open direct talks with North Korea, urging the United States, Russia and NATO to immediately establish military-to-military talks, and calling on India and Pakistan to set up a nuclear hotline.

"The Nuclear Crisis Group assesses that the risk of nuclear weapons use, intended or otherwise, is unacceptably high and that all states must take constructive steps to reduce these risks," the former military and diplomatic leaders from nations as diverse as Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and the United States write in an 11-page report about what they consider the biggest nuclear flashpoints.

Story Continued Below

The crisis group was established earlier this year under the auspices of Global Zero, an leading arms control organization that supports the ultimate abolition of nuclear weapons.

A primary concern is the deteriorating situation with North Korea, which continues to test long-range missiles and prepare additional nuclear tests, and has been the focus of rising threats from President Donald Trump. Among the group's recommendations: "To reduce immediate nuclear risks, the United States and North Korea should resume bilateral discussions immediately without preconditions."

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It also calls on Washington and Pyongyang to "refrain from nuclear threats and adopt nuclear no-first-use statements" and to further reduce tensions the U.S. should "suspend flights of strategic bombers and visits by strategic submarines in return for key commensurate restraints by North Korea."

The calls for action on North Korea coincided with a letter Wednesday to Trump from a bipartisan group of former top U.S. leaders including former secretaries of State, Defense and Energy also urging him to open direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Tightening sanctions can be useful in increasing pressure on North Korea, but sanctions alone will not solve the problem, the letter states. Pyongyang has shown it can make progress on missile and nuclear technology despite its isolation. Without a diplomatic effort to stop its progress, there is little doubt that it will develop a long-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the United States.

The letter to Trump was signed by William Perry, former secretary of Defense under Bill Clinton; George Shultz, secretary of State under Ronald Reagan; Robert Gallucci, who was was chief U.S. negotiator during the North Korean nuclear crisis of 1994; Siegfried Hecker, the former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, who has visited North Korea seven times; former Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, who chaired the Foreign Relations Committee; and Bill Richardson, a former secretary of Energy and another frequent visitor to the isolated communist regime.

On Russia, the report from the former nuclear commanders says the escalating standoff between the United States and its European allies and Moscow also requires urgent action by all parties, including limiting the size, nature and secrecy of military exercises.

"I think the consensus here is that Russia is a much dicier story than people understand, with the intercepts in the air and all the rest," said Bruce Blair, co-founder of Global Zero and a former nuclear missile officer, referring to recent military confrontations between the U.S. and Russian militaries. "The gravity and the potential for escalation have been widely underestimated. We worry about Russian escalation to the use of nuclear weapons."

Among its recommendations, the group calls for leaders to "urgently resume effective US-Russia and NATO-Russia high-level dialogues and military-to-military discussions."

They also call on Trump and President Vladimir Putin to agree to extend the 2012 New START nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia when they meet in Germany next week.

"Crisis instability between the United States and Russia remains unacceptably high," says the report. "There is growing concern that military and doctrinal moves by NATO and Russia could provoke a conflict with nuclear ramifications."

The group also offers a series of recommendations to lower nuclear dangers in South Asia, where the arsenals of India and Pakistan are considered particularly destabilizing because they do not have the same of security procedures as other nuclear powers.

"They lack safety features and the risk they would detonate from an accident is uncomfortably high," said Blair. "They have not developed the safety features that the U.S. and Russia have,"

Another area of high concern not receiving enough attention is the potential for a cyberattack on nuclear command and control systems.

"All states with nuclear should also consider establishing a formal dialogue to prevent cyber-based interference in nuclear operations, command-and-control and early warning capabilities," the report says. "The growth and uncertainties surrounding national offensive cyber capabilities must be walled off from nuclear operations and early warning to protect against a new dangerous potential source of instability and crisis manipulation.

Added Blair: "Two or more of these crises could develop simultaneously and we have a vacuum of leadership in the world."

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Ex-nuke commanders: Talk to North Korea, open NATO-Russia ... - Politico

How much of a threat does Russia pose, and to whom? – BBC News


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How much of a threat does Russia pose, and to whom?
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Nato defence ministers are reviewing progress in what's known as the alliance's "enhanced forward presence" - its deployment of troops eastwards to reassure worried allies, and deter any Russian move west. Nato has dispatched four battalion-sized ...

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How much of a threat does Russia pose, and to whom? - BBC News

Aust may follow NATO on cyber security – NEWS.com.au

Australia may call in the military to help tackle cyber security threats, following in the footsteps of NATO-member countries.

Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Cyber Security Dan Tehan said Australia "wouldn't rule anything out" in terms of dealing with cyber threats like the Petya ransomware virus that has locked computers in 60 countries, including Australia, this week.

His comments came just hours after NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels that the 12 alliance members will treat cyber security as a military responsibility.

"We welcome this news from NATO overnight," Mr Tehan told ABC TV on Thursday.

"We obviously have things under active review at the moment, and we will continue to do what we think is right and necessary to keep Australia cyber secure."

Mr Stoltenberg said alliance members agreed last year that a cyber attack could trigger Article 5 of the North Atlantic treaty, much in the same way a military threat against one member country is treated as an attack against all NATO members.

"We have also decided and we are in the process of establishing cyber as a military domain meaning that we will have land, air, sea and cyber as military domains," he said on the eve of a meeting of NATO defence ministers.

"The attack in May and this week just underlines the importance of strengthening our cyber defences and that is what we are doing."

Meanwhile, computer experts have been working in Australia and across the globe to contain the Petya virus that began spreading from Ukraine on Tuesday, locking the computer systems of several major multinational companies.

So far, problems in Australia appear to have been confined to the computer systems of Cadbury chocolate owner Mondelez, TNT Express, and law firm DLA Piper.

The problems forced the shutdown of Cadbury's chocolate factory in Hobart and affected four other Mondelez factories on Wednesday after the company's computer systems froze.

A Mondelez spokeswoman said limited production had begun at some factories on Thursday.

Mr Tehan said the government was continuing to check whether any more computer systems in Australia had been hit by Petya.

"I can say at this stage, both at the federal and the state level, there has been no reports of any government departments or agencies, so it's just those three multinationals at the moment that seem to have been impacted," he said.

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Aust may follow NATO on cyber security - NEWS.com.au

Mattis Consults NATO on Afghan Strategy – Voice of America

PENTAGON

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is in Brussels, where he will consult with NATO allies on troop contributions and other support for Afghanistan, before announcing his own policy plan for the war-torn country.

The Pentagon has promised a new Afghanistan plan by mid-July, and Michael OHanlon, a senior defense analyst at the Brookings Institution, expects the new plan will not be a repeal and replace strategy, but rather a reformation of the Obama administrations plan.

Mattis and Trump are just repairing a mistake, in effect, that I think President Barack Obama made. And it is, in a sense, more properly carrying out Obamas own strategy than Obama himself did, OHanlon told VOA.

The strategy will still focus on Afghan troops taking the lead on security in the country, a critical point in the Obama administrations military efforts since June 2013. But OHanlon explains why he thinks the past president made a mistake when he cut American military support in the country from about 100,000 U.S. troops in May 2011 to fewer than 10,000 American troops over a four-year span.

That was probably too fast and too low, so by restoring just a few thousand more, I think we can get advisers out in the field with some of the key Afghan units and hopefully really stabilize the situation, said OHanlon.

U.S. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, Americas top general, arrived Monday in Afghanistan with a mission to pull together the final elements of a military strategy that likely will include sending about 4,000 more U.S. troops into the country.

Mattis is expected to meet with General John Nicholson, the commander of international forces in Afghanistan, ahead of the NATO defense ministers meeting, where he will press some allies to increase their commitments to Afghanistan.

We have to think about what else they can bring to bear to help, Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White told VOA last week. I know everyone wants to know whats going to happen, but the secretary is being very deliberative and very thoughtful about what the commanders need and whats necessary to change the tide.

Officials say the new strategy also will need to provide the necessary resources for the American-led coalition to support Afghan forces at lower levels in the military chain of command. In addition, they say it will need to stop elements of Pakistans government from propping up the Taliban, and it will need to stop Islamic States local affiliate from growing.

Its not getting better in Afghanistan in terms of ISIS. We have a problem, and we have to defeat them and we have to be focused on that problem, White said.

Analysts say the groups operational capabilities have been severely stinted, despite an increase in militant numbers, due to the pressing need to defend themselves from both U.S. and Afghan attacks.

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Mattis Consults NATO on Afghan Strategy - Voice of America

NATO says more Russian buzzing of Baltic airspace a risk for deadly mistakes – Deutsche Welle

The Baltic nations and Poland just got some long-awaited NATO boots on the ground, inaugurating new standing battalions last week amid multinational exercises along the Russian border. In the skies above, the Kremlin made sure everyone knew it was watching, sending its warplanes to "buzz" Baltic airspace and even, according to the Lithuanian ministry of defense, to illegally enter it on two occasions.

Finland and Sweden also noted incidents in their vicinities. In a dramatic encounter on June 21, a Polish F-16 approached the plane carrying Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on his way to Kaliningrad, videotaped from aboard the Russian plane. Russian media reported a Russian escort plane intervened between the NATO jet and Shoigu's aircraft.

The same day the US reported a Russian jet flew less than two meters from one of its surveillance planes, which a Pentagon spokesman said was dangerous due to the Russian pilot's "high rate of closure speed and poor control of the aircraft." Sweden summoned Russia's ambassador after a Russian fighter jet flew unusually close to a Swedish reconnaissance plane in international airspace above the Baltic Sea.

NATO notes more Russian 'visitors'

NATO's deputy spokesperson Piers Cavalet confirmed to DW that there was an unusual spike in the Russian air presence over the Baltic Sea last week. "These included strategic bombers, fighters, reconnaissance, transport and other aircraft," Cavalet said, adding that planes operating as part of NATO's air-policing operations or from national air forces followed standard procedure in "scrambling" to monitor the aircraft.

Cavalet rejected Russian accusations that NATO planes are the ones creating tensions, saying "when NATO aircraft intercept a plane they identify it visually, maintaining a safe distance at all times. Once complete, NATO jets break away. All our pilots behave in a safe and responsible way."

NATO says there's been a spike in the number of Russian planes flying too close to allied aircraft

Speaking Monday in Brussels, the chairmanof NATO's military command, General Petr Pavel, added that it's not just the airspace over the Baltic Sea where the spike is evident, but also over the Black Sea.

"In most of these cases we haven't been observing [the flights] would be clearly hostile," Pavel said at an event hosted by Politico. "[W]e are mostly witnessing what we call unprofessional behavior in the airspace. When these rules are broken the chance of getting into an incident is pretty close."

With Russia beginning its own military exercises along its western border in September, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told DW he is concerned about an even higher risk of such accidents then.

World events warrant concern for air clashes

But Thomas Frear, a research fellow with the European Leadership Network, has been writing for years about what he calls the "escalatory potential" of encounters between Russian and Western aircraft and ships. After a decline in tension in 2016 following a 2014/2015 spike, Frear believes the situation has become more critical now, with the stand-off between the US and Russia in Syria.

"The unexpectedly hostile relations between [Russia and] the Trump administration, the ever increasing tempo of military exercises in Europe, and the closer proximity of Russian and coalition aircraft in Syria have combined to drive the number of incidents up again," he told DW.

Frear said that Western authorities are not taking the situation seriously enough, especially the risk to civilian aircraft. "I view this as a combination of complacency and a lack of understanding of the problem," he said, explaining that international regulations governing interaction between aircraft do not apply to military planes.

Neither are national air forces required to be transparent about their rules of behavior with respect to non-military aircraft, Frear said. "[C]ivilian pilots will be unaware of military patterns of behavior," he noted, "risking an accident."

While there are some efforts to change this, Frear said it would require amending the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, a global agreement, making the possibility of any quick action quite remote.

US-Russian tension over Syria worse than Cold War

Frear urges immediate attention to the potential NATO-Russia conflict brewing beyond the Baltics in Syria, where the status of the US-Russian air safety agreement in the country is now uncertain.

"Greater engagement by both Russia and the US-led coalition in Syria has certainly heightened the possibility of a lethal clash," Frear warned, pointing to the fact that NATO ally Turkey already shot down a Russian plane it said crossed into its airspace in 2015. In addition, he said, "Russian and US aircraft have already attacked ground forces allied to the other, leading to rhetoric from military leaders of a bellicosity not seen even at the height of the Cold War."

As well as the need for the Syrian deconfliction agreement to be preserved, Frear said joint groups of experts should be urgently examining how to craft a broader NATO-Russia agreement on avoiding and managing hazardous incidents. In the shortest term, he writes in his report, "there should be zero tolerance for reckless behavior of individual military commanders, pilots and other personnel, especially by the Russian leadership. Use of dangerous military brinkmanship tactics for political signaling is a high-risk strategy, which may backfire in case of an incident."

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NATO says more Russian buzzing of Baltic airspace a risk for deadly mistakes - Deutsche Welle

Bloomberg View: NATO can fight terrorism one sinking boat at a time … – Omaha World-Herald

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has now formally enlisted in the fight against Islamic State. It can begin by helping to stem the flow of refugees trying to reach Europe from North Africa.

This would be more than a humanitarian exercise; it would be a counterterrorism operation. Wherever refugees gather in hopelessness, violent extremists have a fertile recruiting ground. And the number of refugees is staggering.

Nearly 200,000 people fleeing violence and poverty tried to cross the Mediterranean last year, and at least 5,000 died in the attempt. The U.N. estimates there are more than half a million refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people in Libya alone.

Neither the fractured Libyan government nor the European Union can cope with the numbers, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in makeshift refugee camps some of which are controlled by human traffickers and resemble concentration camps, according to a German government report.

Those who make it across the Mediterranean dont fare much better. Most end up in overcrowded camps in Italy, where social services are lacking and applications for asylum languish.

Those intercepted in Libyan waters are sent back. Sometimes the traffickers dump their human cargo in the sea to avoid capture.

So what can NATO do? With more than 700 ships at its disposal, it can do a lot.

For starters, it can build on Italian-led Operation Sophia, which has saved thousands of lives but is woefully inadequate to the task.

NATOs sophisticated surveillance capabilities, such as long-range patrol airplanes and satellite imagery, can monitor ports in Africa and the Middle East and aid in search-and-rescue efforts.

NATO can also help the EUs efforts to professionalize the Libyan coast guard.

The alliance can foster far more naval cooperation and intelligence sharing among its members, and with intergovernmental entities such as Interpol. This should also involve another underutilized asset: private shipping companies, which are obligated to respond to other vessels in distress.

NATO could also encourage member states to build more camps on Mediterranean islands and could aid with construction, perimeter security, health care and the like.

NATO patrols in the Mediterranean could provide a more direct benefit in the fight against terrorists: stemming the flow of arms from the Middle East to Islamist terrorists in North Africa. Islamic State already has a foothold in Libya and is trying to expand into Tunisia.

Two years ago, the civil war in Syria caused the exodus of millions, which set off a political crisis from Greece to the U.K. and created a lasting rift between Turkey and its NATO allies.

That time, the alliance watched from the sidelines. Now, as fighting intensifies and conditions deteriorate in Syria, NATO cant afford to make the same mistake.

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Bloomberg View: NATO can fight terrorism one sinking boat at a time ... - Omaha World-Herald

NATO’s senior military officer: Russia threat growing on all fronts – POLITICO.eu

General Petr Pavel, chairman of the NATO Military Committee | Mariscal/EPA

General Petr Pavel said Russias increasing military presence was clear, even if its intentions were not.

By David M. Herszenhorn

6/26/17, 6:10 PM CET

Updated 6/26/17, 9:54 PM CET

NATOs senior military officer said the alliance was confronting efforts by Russia to increase its military capabilities on virtually every level and allies were on guard to prevent any repeat of the Kremlins military intervention in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

Speaking at a POLITICO Brussels Playbook breakfastMonday, General Petr Pavel, chairman of the NATO Military Committee, said that while Russias intentions were not necessarily clear, its growing military prowess was undeniable.

We in uniform, we define the threat based on two major elements. One is the capability, the other is the intent, Pavel told POLITICOs Ryan Heath. When it comes to capability there is no doubt that Russia is developing their capabilities both in conventional and nuclear components. When it comes to exercises, their ability to deploy troops forlong distance and to use them effectively quite far away from their own territory, there are no doubts.

The Kremlins intentions were less clear, he said. When it comes to intent, its not so clear because we cannot clearly say that Russia has aggressive intents againstNATO, the general said.

Still, he noted Russias increasing military presence, and made reference to reports ofthe stationing of nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles in Kaliningrad and Crimea.

There are elements that have to worry us and we have to stay ready, Pavel said. So we take this even potential threat very seriously. We do everything possible to be ready both in terms of capabilities and readiness, to face any potential threat that would mirror the situationwe know from Crimea, from eastern Ukraine, not to be repeated against any NATO ally.

He added: We also observe an increased and more assertive attitude in both political and military leadership talking about taking all necessary measures to face NATO military build-up. We face a huge modernization of all Russia military.

In addition to the threat from Russia, Pavel said that NATO was working to increase its efforts on counter-terrorism and that the alliance did not have the luxury of focusing only on threats from state actors.

Officials at NATO viewed strong relations with Turkey as a priority, he said, even as political ties between Ankara and other NATO allies have been deeply strained.

After a failed coup attempt last summer, scores of Turkish NATO officers were purged from the military, with some arrested and others choosing to appeal for asylum in Europe.

Pavel said that NATO allies judged it important to see events in Turkey in context and it was likely Turkey feelsmore threatened than other nations when it comes to internal security.

Turkey is exposed to both major challenges that NATO is now facing, that is on the one hand, a state actor, Russia, on the other hand, non-state actors, extremism, terrorism and migration, he said. All these severely affect Turkey directly.

We see Turkey as an important NATO ally that needs to be supported, he said.

NATO defense ministers are due to meet in Brussels later this week.

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US, NATO Conclude Saber Strike 17 Exercise – Department of Defense

ADAZI MILITARY BASE, Latvia, June 26, 2017 About 11,000 U.S. and NATO service members from 20 countries concluded the Saber Strike 17 exercise here on June 24.

The exercise took place in various regions in the Baltics and Poland from May 28-June 24.

Saber Strike 17 is a long-standing Joint Chiefs of Staff-directed, U.S. European Command-scheduled, U.S. Army Europe-led cooperative training exercise.

Multinational Exercise

Participating nations in this years exercise included Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

This years key training objective was to exercise with NATOs enhanced forward presence battle groups as part of a multinational division, while conducting an integrated, synchronized, deterrence-oriented field training exercise designed to improve the interoperability and readiness of participating nations armed forces.

Less than one year ago, our alliance said we were going to transition from assurance to deterrence, said Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the commander of U.S. Army Europe. One of the manifestations of that transition was the creation of the eFP Battlegroups. In less than one year, these battle groups are exercising already in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. That is an amazing accomplishment for our great alliance.

Hodges added, Deterrence means you have to have the capability to compel or defeat a potential adversary. You have to demonstrate that capability and the will to use it, and these exercises are that demonstration.

Key Training Events

Key training events of the exercise included a convoy by Battlegroup Poland, from Orysz, Poland, to southern Lithuania; a maritime prepositioned offload of prestaged supplies and equipment in Latvia; a Marine amphibious assault in Latvia; two combined arms live-fire exercises, one each in Poland and Lithuania; an air assault by the British Royal Marines at the Polish and Lithuanian border; and a river crossing in the same area.

If you would like to have skilled soldiers, you have to train every day, said Latvian Army Chief of Defense Maj. Gen. Leonids Kalnins. If you would like to be safe as a state, you have to find allies; but if you would like to be the winner and create a great future for all countries, for all society, you have to participate in such exercises as this one.

The Saber Strike exercise series facilitates cooperation between the U.S, allied, and partner nations to improve joint operational capability in a variety of missions and prepare participating nations and units for future operations while enhancing the NATO alliance.

During the exercise, U.S. and NATO distinguished visitors attended a demonstration of the joint and combined capabilities of the U.S. and NATO here.

NATO Allies Working Together

One of the visitors was Nancy Bikoff Pettit, U.S. ambassador to Latvia, who spoke about the importance of the exercise.

I think exercises like this send a very strong message, she said. Its not only the U.S. who is interested in security and defense here in the Baltic region, its all of our NATO allies working together.

Bikoff Pettit added, This exercise demonstrates what happens when many NATO allies come together to cooperate and demonstrate the interoperability that we have. We are really pleased with the quality of the exercises.

Saber Strike 17 promotes regional stability and security, while strengthening partner capabilities and fostering trust. The combined training opportunities that it provided greatly improve interoperability among participating NATO allies and key regional partners.

The U.S. is here, Hodges said. Were going to continue to participate in exercises; American soldiers love serving with Latvian soldiers. This is a great place to train, and were excited about doing that for as [long] as I can see.

As the seventh iteration of this exercise, Saber Strike 17 continues to provide a venue for U.S. and NATO military members to train and learn from one another to form a stronger partnership.

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US, NATO Conclude Saber Strike 17 Exercise - Department of Defense

For the Netherlands, NATO Participation Is as Important as Defense Spending – World Politics Review

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For the Netherlands, NATO Participation Is as Important as Defense Spending - World Politics Review

NATO Can Fight Terrorism and Help Refugees – Bloomberg

NATO can help.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has now formally enlisted in the fight against Islamic State. It can begin by helping to stem the flow of refugees trying to reach Europe from North Africa.

This would be more than a humanitarian exercise; it would be a counterterrorism operation. Wherever refugees gather in hopelessness, violent extremists have a fertile recruiting ground. And the number of refugees is staggering.

Nearly 200,000 people fleeing violence and poverty tried to cross the Mediterranean last year, and at least 5,000 died in the attempt. The U.N. estimates that there are more than half a million refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people in Libya alone. Neither the fractured Libyan government nor the European Union can cope with the numbers, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in makeshift refugee camps -- some of which are controlled by human traffickers and resemble concentration camps, according to a German government report.

Those who make it across the Mediterranean dont fare much better. Most end up in overcrowded camps in Italy where social services are lacking and applications for asylum languish. Those intercepted in Libyan waters are sent back. Sometimes the traffickers dump their human cargo in the sea to avoid capture.

So what can NATO do? With more than 700ships at its disposal, a lot.

For starters, it can build on Italian-led Operation Sophia, which has saved thousands of lives but is woefully inadequate to the task. NATOs sophisticated surveillance capabilities, such as long-range patrol airplanes and satellite imagery, can monitor ports in Africa and the Middle East and aid in search-and-rescue efforts. NATO can also help the EUs efforts to professionalize the Libyan coast guard.

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The alliance can foster far more naval cooperation and intelligence sharing among its members, and with intergovernmental entities like Interpol. This should also involve another underutilized asset: private shipping companies, which are obligated to respond to other vessels in distress.NATO could also encourage member states build more camps on Mediterranean islands and could aid with construction, perimeter security, health care and the like.

NATO patrols in the Mediterranean could also provide a more direct benefit in the fight against terrorists: stemming the flow of arms from the Middle East to Islamist terrorists in North Africa. Islamic State already has a foothold in Libya and is trying to expand into Tunisia.

Two years ago, the civil war in Syria caused the exodus of millions, which set off a political crisis from Greece to the U.K. and created a lasting rift between Turkey and its NATO allies. That time, the alliance watched from the sidelines. Now, as fighting intensifies and conditions deteriorate in Syria, NATO cant afford to make the same mistake.

--Editors: Tobin Harshaw, Michael Newman.

To contact the senior editor responsible for Bloomberg Views editorials: David Shipley at davidshipley@bloomberg.net .

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NATO Can Fight Terrorism and Help Refugees - Bloomberg

The Future of NATO | Council on Foreign Relations

When NATO's founding members signed the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4, 1949, they declared themselves "resolved to unite their efforts for collective defense and for the preservation of peace and security." The greatest threat to these objectives was a military attack by a hostile powera prospect that led to the treaty's most famous provision, Article V, which states, "The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all."

Today, more than sixty years later, the threats facing the alliance's members have changed considerably. An attack in North America or Europe by the regular army of an outside state is highly unlikely. Instead, the alliance must confront an array of more diffuse challenges, ranging from terrorism and nuclear proliferation to piracy, cyberattacks, and the disruption of energy supplies.

In this Council Special Report, James M. Goldgeier takes on the question of how NATO, having successfully kept the peace in Europe in the twentieth century, can adapt to the challenges of the twenty-first. Goldgeier contends that NATO retains value for the United States and Europe. He writes, though, that it must expand its vision of collective defense in order to remain relevant and effective. This means recognizing the full range of threats that confront NATO members today and affirming that the alliance will respond collectively to an act (whether by an outside state or a nonstate entity) that imperils the political or economic security or territorial integrity of a member state.

A central part of this debate concerns NATO's involvement in conflicts outside of Europe, including today in Afghanistan. Analyzing the questions surrounding this involvement, Goldgeier rejects any distinction between traditional Article V threats and those to be found outside the North Atlantic treaty area. Instead, he argues, these threats can be one and the same. If NATO is unable to recognize this reality and confront dangers wherever they arise, Goldgeier contends, American interest in the alliance will wane.

Examining a range of other issues, the report argues that NATO should expand its cooperation with non-European democracies, such as Australia and Japan; outlines steps to improve NATO's relations with Russia; and urges greater cooperation between NATO and the European Union. Finally, on the issue of enlargement, the report supports the current policy of keeping the door open to Georgia and Ukraine while recognizing that they will not join the alliance anytime soon.

NATO has been a cornerstone of security in Europeand of U.S. foreign policyfor six decades. But its ability to continue playing such a central role is unclear. The Future of NATO takes a sober look at what the alliance and its members must do to maintain NATO's relevance in the face of today's strategic environment. The result is an important work that combines useful analysis and practical recommendations for policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Educators: Access the Teaching Module for The Future of NATO.

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The Future of NATO | Council on Foreign Relations

Thousands March in Greece Against NATO ‘Imperialists’ – teleSUR English

Thousands of Greeks have taken to the streets to protest the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in a massive two-day anti-imperialist demonstration organized by the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) in Thessaloniki.

RELATED: As NATO Meets, a Look at Its Deadly 'Peace' Operations

The demonstrators, many from various trade unions from both Greece and abroad, are protesting NATO interventions and military bases, chanting slogans such as "Murderers, thieves and hypocrites are the European imperialists!" and "Crisis, wars, uprooting, this is capitalism!"

Protesters marched through Thessaloniki's seafront avenue to demonstrate outside NATOs "Rapid Deployable Corps" headquarters.

Our enemies are not the neighboring people, but NATO and the bases," declared Giorgos Perro, part of PAME's Executive Committee.

Zeljko Veselinovic, president of the Serbian Trade Union SLOGA, on behalf of all foreign trade unions attending the rally, affirmed PAMEs solidarity to Greece's working class during NATOs 1999 bombings in the former Yugoslavia.

"We, the workers, are brothers regardless race, religion or skin color and that will be forever. Nobody is going to subdue us. We are stronger and they will never beat us", he stated.

Lieutenant-Colonel Papanastasis, a member of the "Movement for National Defense", former Greek army officers and politicians who rebelled, added, "We, the military officers, have passed the largest part of our life in the camps and have a first-hand knowledge of what 'NATO' means.

RELATED: NATO Could be Sued for Use of Depleted Uranium in Yugoslavia

We know the dimension of the dramatic consequences for the people, resulted by our country's participation on that. We know what blood-stained operational plans it has. Everyone knows the slaughtering of the people of Yugoslavia, as well as of other people," he continued.

The two-day demonstration ends Sunday with an international meeting of trade unions in the region.

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Thousands March in Greece Against NATO 'Imperialists' - teleSUR English

Baku F2: Arden’s Norman Nato wins thriller ahead of Charles Leclerc – autosport.com

Arden's Norman Nato won a breathless Formula 2 sprint race in Baku after on-the-road victor Charles Leclerc dropped to second with a 10-second time penalty.

Nato - who led for most of the race once a gearbox problem had eliminated early leader Oliver Rowland - took his first victory of 2017 despite being passed by championship leader Leclerc, who was given a penalty for failing to slow for yellow flags.

DAMS driver Nicholas Latifi completed the podium as he finished over 10s behind the battle for the lead.

At the start of the 21-lap race, Rowland attacked polesitter Ralph Boschung on the run to Turn 1 but the Campos Racing driver defended hard against the pitwall.

The tighter line meant Boschung went wide at the exit of the first corner, which gave Rowland the chance to dive up the inside for the left-hand Turn 2 and the Briton grabbed the lead under braking.

Rowland began to edge clear and Boschung came under attack from Nato - who lost his right front wing end plate against the rear of the Swiss driver's car as he went by on lap three.

Nato then started to home in on Rowland while Leclerc, who started down in eighth place after winning Saturday's feature race, began to pressure a gaggle of cars including Artem Markelov, Sergey Sirotkin and Jordan King.

Rowland's race ended suddenly when he encountered gearbox issues at the start of lap eight, which allowed Nato to move into the lead.

At the same time, Leclerc finally began to make progress as he blasted past Markelov using DRS on the pit straight and defended hard when the Russian Time driver hit back.

Ferrari Formula 1 junior driver Leclerc moved up two places in a thrilling move as he and Sirotkin used their DRS advantage to sweep either side of Boschung heading into Turn 1 approaching half-distance, and Leclerc then dispatched ART Grand Prix driver Sirotkin around the outside of the left-hander.

Leclerc was 10s off the lead as he went past King with a familiar DRS blast on the main straight and he quickly closed in on Latifi, who was running second after Rapax's Nyck de Vries retired down the Turn 3 escape road.

Prema Racing driver Leclerc eased past Latifi and then set fastest lap after fastest lap to chase down Nato for the lead.

But just as he was catching the French driver it was announced he was under investigation for failing to slow for yellow flags - the same offence that frustrated Rowland and three other drivers in the feature race.

Leclerc moved into the lead on the road with three laps to go but just a few moments later his penalty was confirmed and his chances of emulating Antonio Giovinazzi's double win in Baku for Prema in 2016 disappeared.

King finished fourth ahead of Sirotkin, Markelov, Nobuharu Matsushita, Luca Ghiotto, and Boschung.

Sergio Sette Camara rounded out the top 10 for MP Motorsport.

RESULTS - 21 LAPS:

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

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Baku F2: Arden's Norman Nato wins thriller ahead of Charles Leclerc - autosport.com

Belgium: NATO agrees to help build security institutions in Libya – AMN Al-Masdar News (registration)

BEIRUT, LEBANON (5:05 P.M.) NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO will help the Libyan government build effective defence and security institutions in the northern African country, speaking to press in Brussels, Thursday, following a meeting with Prime Minister of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez Al-Sarraj earlier that day.

Stoltenberg said that it is essential to find a political solution to the Libyan crisis and that therefore NATO has agreed to help the northern African state. He explained that a team of NATO experts recently met with Libyan government representatives to discuss what we can do to help you build an effective defence and security institutions in Libya, including a modern Ministry of Defence, a joint military staff, and intelligence services under civilian control.

The NATO Secretary General added that the main purpose of the meeting today [was] to make sure our experts will sit down as soon as possible, hopefully within a few weeks.

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Libya has been wracked by security issues since former President Muammar Gaddafi was ousted from power in 2011, with international diplomats making a plea to stop hostilities between the LNA, led by General Khalifa Haftar, and the GNA, in a bid to avoid escalation between the two sides.

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U.S., NATO wrap up Saber Strike 17 > U.S. Air Force > Article Display – Air Force Link

ADAZI MILITARY BASE, Latvia (AFNS) -- Saber Strike 17, a month-long exercise including 11,000 U.S. and NATO military members from 20 countries, wraps up June 24.The exercise took place in various regions in the Baltics and Poland beginning May 28.

Saber Strike 17 is this years iteration of a long-standing Joint Chiefs of Staff-directed, U.S. European Command-scheduled, U.S. Army Europe-led cooperative training exercise.

Participating nations included Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom.

This years key training objective was to exercise with NATOs enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroups as part of a multinational division, while conducting an integrated, synchronized, deterrence-oriented field training exercise designed to improve the interoperability and readiness of participating nations armed forces.

Less than one year ago, our alliance said we were going to transition from assurance to deterrence, said Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the U.S. Army Europe commanding general. One of the manifestations of that transition was the creation of the eFP Battlegroups. In less than one year, these battlegroups are exercising already in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. That is an amazing accomplishment for our great alliance.

Deterrence means you have to have the capability to compel or defeat a potential adversary, he continued. You have to demonstrate that capability and the will to use it, and these exercises are that demonstration.

Key training events of the exercise included a convoy by Battlegroup Poland from Orysz, Poland, to southern Lithuania; a maritime prepositioned offload of pre-staged supplies and equipment in Latvia; a Marine amphibious assault in Latvia; two combined arms live-fire exercises, one each in Poland and Lithuania; an air assault by the British Royal Marines at the Polish and Lithuanian border; and a river crossing in the same area.

If you would like to have skilled soldiers, you have to train every day, said Maj. Gen. Leonids Kalnins, the Latvian army chief of defense. If you would like to be safe as a state, you have to find allies; but if you would like to be the winner and create a great future for all countries, for all society, you have to participate in such exercises as this one.

The Saber Strike program facilitates cooperation between the U.S, allied, and partner nations to improve joint operational capability in a variety of missions and prepare participating nations and units for future operations while enhancing the NATO Alliance. During the exercise, U.S. and NATO distinguished visitors attended a demonstration of the joint and combined capabilities of the U.S. and NATO at Adazi Military Base, Latvia.

One of the visitors was Nancy Bikoff Pettit, the U.S. ambassador to Latvia, who spoke about the importance of the exercise.

I think exercises like this send a very strong message, Bikoff Pettit said. Its not only the U.S. who is interested in security and defense here in the Baltic region, its all of our NATO allies working together.

This exercise demonstrates what happens when many NATO allies come together to cooperate and demonstrate the interoperability that we have, she continued. We are really pleased with the quality of the exercises.

Saber Strike 17 promotes regional stability and security, while strengthening partner capabilities and fostering trust. The combined training opportunities that it provided greatly improve interoperability among participating NATO Allies and key regional partners.

The U.S. is here, Hodges said. Were going to continue to participate in exercises; American soldiers love serving with Latvian soldiers. This is a great place to train and were excited about doing that for as [long] as I can see.

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U.S., NATO wrap up Saber Strike 17 > U.S. Air Force > Article Display - Air Force Link

Are We In a New Cold War? – Newsweek

Icy U.S.-Russia relations have sparked global fears ofa new cold war:The Russian embassy in Oslo told ReutersSaturday that the extendedpresence of U.S. Marines on Norwegiansoil will worsen relations with neighboring Russia and is likely to escalate tensions on Nato's northern sphere of influence.

There isa new Cold Warbut it is more threatening than the old one because Russia is so much weaker, and because of that much more dangerous and unpredictable, Lt. Col. Tormod Heier, faculty adviser at the Norwegian Defense University College in Oslo said in an interview withthe New York Times.

Some 330 Marines will be stationed in Norway until the end of nextyear,twice as long aspreviouslyoutlined. The extended deployment comes amid continuing tensions between Nato and Russia, despite the Trump administration signaling a desire to thaw relations with Moscow.

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Norway accused a Russia-linked group of launching cyber attacks against government institutions in February. The same month, Norway announced a $20 billion military spending boostover the next two decades, in response to Russian aggression in the Baltic region.

The deployment of U.S. Marines in Norwaylast January to practice winter warfare and to participate in joint exercises, marked the first foreign troops to be stationed in the NATO member country since the end of World War Two.

"We consider that this step contradicts Norwegian policy of not deploying foreign military bases in the country in times of peace," the Russian embassy wrote in astatement to Reuters.

It further "makes Norway (a) not fully predictable partner, can also escalate tension and lead to destabilization of the situation in the Northern region," it added.

Norway has downplayed the significance of the deployment, emphasizing the training element and denying that the arrival of Marines was an act directed against Russia. The U.S. troops are stationed some 1,500 km (900 miles) from the Russian border.

"A high level of regular allied presence creates a stabilizing state of normality in times of peace, which contributes to deterrence and defense," Norwegian Defense Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide said in a June 21 statement.

USAF ground support aircraft A-10 participates in the multinational NATO exercise Saber Strike in Adazi, Latvia, June 11, 2015. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

The center-right minority government's decision received broad support from Norwegian opposition parties, but was criticized by the far left.

"The deployment ... shows the government [is] more concerned by being well-liked by the Americans and in NATO than by conducting responsible security policy," Lars Haltbrekken of Norway's Socialist Left Party told public broadcaster NRK.

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Intel Agent Reveals How NATO Planned to Tear Russia Apart – Sputnik International

Politics

20:21 24.06.2017(updated 20:22 24.06.2017) Get short URL

Sputnik/ Alexey Vitvitsky

The program was dedicated tothe 95th anniversary ofthe Directorate S ("illegal" intelligence service) ofthe Foreign Intelligence Service ofthe Russian Federation (SVR).

The interview was conducted byVesti v Subbotu anchor Sergei Brilev. The voice, face and name ofthe former agent were changed due tosecurity reasons.

"Pavel Andreyevich [the agent's alias] says that the NATO documents obtained byhim signaled that the dissolution ofthe USSR was only the first stage," Brilev noted.

"And then [NATO planned] tocreate the Russian North-Volga Republic and then the Middle Volga Republic, and reduce the Russian state tothe level and size ofthe Moscow principality," the intelligence veteran specified.

"We have these documents, they are now inthe archive ofour [Russian intelligence] service," the former agent stressed.

REUTERS/ Ints Kalnins

U.S. navy marines take a break during annual recurring multinational, maritime-focused NATO exercise BALTOPS 2017, near Ventspils, Latvia, June 6, 2017

The idea ofthe partition ofRussia is not new.

In his book The Grand Chessboard published six years afterthe collapse ofthe USSR, a former US national security adviser and geostrategist, Zbigniew Brzezinski, insisted that "a more decentralized Russia would be less susceptible toimperial mobilization."

"A loosely confederated Russia composed ofa European Russia, a Siberian Republic, and a Far Eastern Republic would find it easier tocultivate closer economic regulations withEurope, withthe new states ofCentral Asia, and with [East Asia], which would thereby accelerate Russia's own development," the geostrategist claimed.

AP Photo/ Pavel Golovkin

Interestingly enough, beforeBrzezinski, the idea tosever Russia alongthe Ural Mountains thus dividing it into "European" and "Asian" (Siberia and the Far East) parts, was mulled overby Nazi Germany and its allies.

In December 1941, half a year afterNazi Germany invaded the USSR, the Empire ofJapan offered Adolf Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini todivide Eurasia intotwo spheres ofinterest alongthe 70th meridian east longitude. As observers noted, Hitler didn't plan toseize much ofSoviet territory east ofthe Ural Mountains.

More thana decade beforethe Axis powers ofGermany, Italy and Japan considered the partitioning ofRussia, the territory ofthe former Russian Empire was subjected toAllied intervention a multinational military expedition launched duringthe Russian Civil War of1918 bymajor European powers which backed the anti-Bolshevik White Guard.

The United States, Canada, Japan and China took part inthe intervention campaign alongwith European powers occupying Russia's northwestern regions, Crimea, Bessarabia, Siberia and the Far East. However, their efforts were thwarted bydivided objectives, a lack ofdomestic support, war-weariness largely caused byWorld War I and the military successes ofthe Red Army.

As history shows, each time Russia faced severe domestic and geopolitical challenges it ran the risk offalling prey tothe global power game.

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Intel Agent Reveals How NATO Planned to Tear Russia Apart - Sputnik International