NATO Plans More Anti-Russia Moves After Finalizing Latest Build-Up

Foreign Ministers Put Finishing Touches on Largest Post Cold War Build-Up

The ink isn’t even dry on the latest moves by the alliance’s foreign ministers to finalize the current anti-Russia military build-up, the largest since the Cold War ended, and officials are already openly talking about doing “more” to target Russia along their frontier.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters today that discussions are ongoing on how NATO can “project stability” around its borders, language which in the last few years has always boiled down to putting more troops on the Russian borders, and issuing more statements predicting an imminent Russian attack on Europe.

US Ambassador Douglas Lute said the plan is for a “very sober discussion on dealing with Russia,” insisting Russia has “thrown out the rulebook” and NATO has to respond. Lute is seen as loudly advocating more military buildups around Europe to target Russia.

And while there was some talk among European members about targeting ISIS in Libya at the ongoing NATO meetings, materially everything that was agreed to, including future talks in Warsaw, were about targeting Russia more aggressively. Even the decision to invite tiny Montenegro to the alliance was seen primarily as being about thumbing their nose at Russia for criticizing the continued expansion of NATO deeper into Warsaw Pact territory.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.