Just months after describing Russia-NATO relations as “on the mend,” NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander General John Craddock declared today that the Russian government “seems determined to see Euro-Atlantic security institutions weakened” and that the post-Soviet assumption that no countries were under threat of invasion in Europe or Eurasia “has been now proven false.”
In written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. Craddock pointed to the brief war between Russia and Georgia last August as proof of Russia’s “overall intent … to weaken European solidarity and systematically reduce US influence.” The nine-day war began when the Republic of Georgia began shelling the capital of the breakaway enclave of South Ossetia, and led Russia to unilaterally recognize the independence of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, outraging the US at a time when they had been pressuring for Georgia’s inclusion in NATO.
Craddock previously expressed hope that the global economic collapse would end Russia’s assertiveness.