The Russian Embassy in Oslo, Norway has issued a statement over the weekend condemning the continued presence of US Marines on Norwegian soil, saying that the deployment contradicts Norway’s long-standing policy of not hosting foreign troops during peacetime.
The statement warned that this move threatened to lead to “destabilization of the situation” along the Russia-Norway border, and that it raised concern among Russian officials about whether Norway is a predictable partner.
The Marines arrived at Porsangmoen in January, officially to learn how to cross-country ski for “future offensive operations in a cold-weather environment.” This was supposed to be a 6-month deployment, but this past week it was extended through at least the end of 2018.
That’s a lot of skiing, and the US doesn’t exactly have a lot of enemies with alpine environments to launch offensives against, which is fueling the conviction among Russian officials that the deployment is entirely about them, putting US troops near their border with an explicitly offensive posture.
Add to this invasion of US marines (and hardware stored throughout the border to Russia) that Norwegian authorities on state television has been running a TV drama about Norway being “occupied by Russia”.
Not exactly helpful if you want to ease tensions that didn’t exist previously either…
I guess that’s what happens when you invade your smaller neighbors after signing an agreement if they Ukraine agreed to give up its nukes you wouldn’t encroach on its territories and respect it’s sovereignty.Ukraine should’ve kept it’s nuclear arsenal as a deterrent for Russia and should’ve NEVER trusted Russia to keep it’s word.Isnt that what you guys on this site are advocating for in North Korea and Iran they need nukes as a deterrent for America.I guess Norway learned something about the Russians when they invaded Ukraine it doesn’t matter if you sit down and come to an agreement with them because they won’t abide by it and they can’t be trusted.USA
If Russia had truly invaded Ukraine, there’d be Russian tanks in Kiev right now. Put another way, if Russia invaded Ukraine, then the USA has invaded Syria, since American boots are on the ground there. And it’s much worse, too, considering that there were, so I’ve heard, 8,000 American air strikes in Syria last year. Where are the Russian air strikes in Ukraine? So, what Russia has actually done in Ukraine is to make defensive moves against the US/German sponsored coup that toppled Yanukovuych. They have offered aid to the Donbas and Luhansk rebels, who are actually willing to stay in Ukraine if they are granted greater autonomy. None of this would have happened if not for the coup.
Perhaps you’re thinking of the Russian “invasion” of Crimea, the one where Crimeans were never killed or rounded-up and placed in prison camps, and where there has been no evidence whatever of any insurgency, as there most certainly would be if Russia invaded Western Ukraine. What people such as yourself — I’m presuming — refuse to see is that the Crimeans took advantage of an opportunity to ***secede*** from Ukraine. We know this is true because polling from Pew and Gallup, both before and after the Referendum, showed support well above 80% for the pro-Russian position, above 90% in one of them. Support for Obama ran at 2 – 6%. We also know that the Crimeans voted at a plus-90% plurality in 1991 to stay with Russia rather than Ukraine. There’s a Wiki page for this info, and you can Google for the poll results on the Crimea Referendum. It’s very clear.
None of this is to say that Putin is a nice guy and a true democrat. The Putin Interviews also showed him making some errors that punctured his rep as a geopolitical ninja mastermind. But overall, the facts are clear — the Russians accepted Crimea into the Russian Federation after they voted to secede, an act which doubled the wages and pensions of the Crimeans, and has admittedly caused some grief for Tatars that oppose the results. One can say that technically Russia has invaded East Ukraine by sending in troops to covertly aid the rebels, something Uncle Sam has done countless times, and which ***would not be happening*** were it not for the US/German-sponsored coup, which was itself illegal. Bottom line, Norway has nothing to fear in terms of a Russian invasion. Nor does anyone else, really. The country with a history of invading other nations in the post-WW2 era is the USA, not Russia.
What does that have to do with Russia not honoring it’s agreement not to encroach on Ukraine’s territory if it agreed to give up its nuclear weapons???And I’ll give it to you at least you’re somewhat honest and aren’t denying that Russia did covertly invade Ukraine it’s called hybrid warfare,s something NATO is preparing for when Russia tries to do it again.USA
“What does that have to do with Russia not honoring it’s agreement not to encroach on Ukraine’s territory if it agreed to give up its nuclear weapons?”
It has everything to do with it. I’m assuming that at least some of the think-tank Russia-haters involved in planning the Ukraine coup anticipated various moves the Russians might make as a result. I further believe that a little knowledge could have been sufficient to set a trap, assuming, for example, that Putin would move to protect the base at Sevastopol. Perhaps they hope Putin would launch a brutal annexation, which would be great for propaganda purposes. That didn’t happen. Neither did Russian armor divisions pour across the border into Donbas on their way to Kiev. Putin was too smart. He did the minimal rather than the maximal thing.
This doesn’t directly answer your question. I would say that Russia honored its obligations up until the time Ukraine allowed a pro-Western coup on Russia’s border. Now, perhaps there was no codicil in the agreement that said, “Except in case of a pro-Western coup,” but nonetheless, things changed. What with Yulia Tymoshenko threatening to drive Russian ships out of the Crimea, and various other examples of growing anti-Russian sentiment, things were tense. Of course, over the years, Putin has bullied the Ukrainians over the pipelines and winter gas supplies, but those were typically occasioned by late bill payments.
Bottom line, I don’t really care about the agreement. As an antiwarrior, my primary concern is to prevent war, and especially a world-ending war with Russia. I can see clear as day what the neocons and liberal interventionists are up to, and so can Putin. I’m not going to hold Russia to a higher standard than Uncle Sam, and so we have to acknowledge that Uncle Sam broke international law by invading Syria, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan, killing well over 2 million people in the process. Further, the Original Sin here was not honoring the will of the Crimean people in 1991 to rejoin Russia. So much for democracy when arbitrary borders have been made sacred. So have the sanctions on Russia been made sacred. That’s the game the bully-boys are playing, but I’m not getting on board with it.
The best thing that could happen now is honest, fair diplomacy to solve this mess. Yeah, I’m laughing, too. Like that’s gonna happen when Uncle Sam has overwhelming conventional superiority. But if Uncle Sam wants to get tough, he’ll have to walk into Russia’s back yard. The standing strength of the Russian Army is about 230,000, roughly the size of the United States Marine Corps, which is the Navy’s army. You can see Russia’s disadvantage when you consider that the regular Army is close to 500,000. But Russia has 3 million reserves, a still significant Navy and Air Force, and they’ve been geared since the first Cold War to a defensive posture. Meanwhile, Uncle Sam’s forces are tied up in various parts of our vast empire and cannot be easily concentrated into enough force to successfully invade Russia. And Putin knows it.
We can only hope that we somehow muddle our way out of this mess.
I fully agree that Ukraine should have kept its nuclear arsenal until and unless the world’s other nuclear powers agreed to disarm as well. Doing so might have made their relations with Russia — and everyone else — much more smooth and friendly.
As it happens, though, Russia hasn’t invaded Ukraine. Some regions have seceded from Ukraine and sought and received Russian support in doing so. The two things are not the same thing. If Texas secedes from the United States and requests support from Mexico in making it stick, Mexican troops in Dallas and Houston won’t be “invading the United States,” because Texas will no longer be part of the United States.
Overthrow Florida, too, while you’re at it…
Thomas Knapp’s 100% correct, EAGLE, so what you’ve posted here is totally wrong. Russia invaded NOBODY. Get it?
Russia invaded Syria because Syria requested help Some of he other forces in Syria would be called unwelcome terrorists And these invaders have not been invited
Russia didn’t invade Syria. We invaded Syria.
Sounds like Norway Estonia Latvia Georgia Lithuiania and Ukraine , Kosovo may already have occupying troops in their countries . So they have already been invaded by NATO
Extended? Those marines must be slow learners, or, Norway is training them with ski bunnies.
More pathetic waste and oorah. Nothing they do has any military value. Russia just launched a new military satellite, every square inch of the planet is being mapped for precision strikes – including the Pentagon.
Hahaha….We’ve got a jet that orbits earth that’s been doing this for years… Sorry to burst you’re bubble…USA
not as accurately. might want to try a websearch rather than listening to the Glenn Beck Show.
Why cause you say so?I think Russia knows it’s fate is in it’s hands… I for one am enjoying the show.Re-create the cold war,ask the people to sacrifice for mother Russia,while you block there internet access and filter they’re capability to find an alternative narrative.See that’s the thing about America nobody is trying to censor us in our country the proof is on this forum.How about where you live comrade???USA
You’d think they would have learned their lesson with Vidkun Quisling.
After Russia saw what happened to Yugoslavia ,The Russian people got rid of their new liberal democracy under Yeltsin and installed a tough guy that they believed would stand up and fight for Russia . In Serbia NATO issued orders to shoot Russian soldiers because they will try to protect Christian civilians . NATO evidently did not want any Christians protected .The English troops refused to obey those orders but those orders wrecked Yeltsin’s government and installed Putin to lead Russia .from than on . Who else other than Russia would US ski troops be planning on invading ? Canada or Iceland .?