NATO and U.S.: Enemies of Choice for Russia’s Military
By Pavel Felgenhauer
May 31, 2017
This week (May 25), the leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) gathered in Brussels for a special summit. Hopes abounded in Moscow that the summit would not be dominated by Russia and the escalation of East-West tensions and that more attention would be given to fighting Islamist terrorism in Afghanistan and the Middle East (Kommersant, May 25). Addressing a session of the Federation Council (upper chamber of the Russian parliament), Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu accused the West of refusing to “form a joint front to fight the evil of international terrorism while promoting the idea of a Russian military threat.” But the notion of jointly fighting terrorism is apparently not actually that high of a priority: in fact, Shoigu also called on the Russian people “not to be blind” to the growing menace “of NATO activities on the borders of Russia.” Shoigu interpreted the Russian combat deployment in Syria—originally lauded by Moscow as a campaign to defeat the Islamic State—as primarily an anti-Western move. “A Russian armed force grouping has appeared on the southern flank of NATO, changing the strategic balance of forces in the region,” Shoigu thundered (Mil.ru, May 24).
http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2017/05/31/nato_and_us_enemies_of_choice_for_russias_military_111491.html
