Posted on 12/27/2014 2:05:01 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Russia has adopted a new military doctrine, keeping North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expansion first among its list of primary external threats.
The revised doctrine [PDF in Russian - 29 pages with 58 sections], signed by President Vladimir Putin on Friday, is comparable to a 2010 version, which also listed NATO expansion as a primary threat.
Additions to the doctrine include a highlighting of the threat from "global strategic antiballistic missile systems" and a Russian goal to protect its interests in the Arctic region, according to Russian state-funded news organization RT.
The doctrine’s adoption comes days after Ukraine took a major step toward joining NATO, when its parliament overwhelmingly renounced the country's nonaligned status that prevented it from joining military alliances.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has become the latest Russian political figure to warn Ukraine against trying to join NATO, recently saying on state television that such a move would be "dangerous."
“There are a few Western countries that want to maintain the crisis in Ukraine and to maintain and boost the confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, including through provocative efforts toward membership in the Atlantic alliance,” Lavrov said, according to Reuters.
"The very idea of Ukraine's efforts to join NATO are dangerous, not only for Ukrainian people, because there is no unity over that issue, it is dangerous for European security," he added.
Tensions between Russia and the west, especially the United States, escalated sharply this year when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March. American officials believe Moscow-backed rebels were responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in July, which killed all 298 on board.
While I agree with you, you're applying American thought processes to Russians. They don't think like we do.
Where did I compare Reagan to anyone?
As president and most powerful man in NATO, versus Mexico joining the evil empires’s Warsaw Pact, of course Reagan would have prevented it.
How can you even make such a silly example, why even play at such fantasies?
It means that even if Ukraine was in NATO and even if Russia invaded, France and Germany and Italy and Greece and the UK would be incapable of mounting a significant military response.
Your statements are making no sense. Besides, to go along with the other thoughts on here against Russia, why would Reagan prevent it? Wouldn’t it be Mexico’s right as a sovereign nation?
You really want to show that you don’t realize that the world was fighting for survival from Russia?
To you good and evil, Hitler versus Britain, or America, is all the same?
Russia is a force for evil that needs to be prevented from becoming powerful enough tho threaten the world again.
Russia is no match for NATO, I don’t what you imagine their capabilities are, or the form their military has, that could enable it to conduct a successful invasion of Western Europe.
First, show me where I said that “good and evil, Hitler versus Britain, or America, is all the same.”
Second, what will prevent Russia from becoming powerful again?
1) We grant Ukraine membership in NATO, provoking a strong, unifying anti-US/NATO backlash from Russia, potentially escalating to war
or
2) We stay out of it, Russia grinds itself down to nothing while trying to play in their own backyard, internal chaos and weakness ensues
Quit thinking tactically. You think “bring Ukraine into NATO —> stick it to Russia —> we win!” Wrong.
Right now Russia is too weak to be a threat, let’s encourage them to turn inward and improve their nation, and give up their notions of world conquest.
One way to stop them from conquering nations to assemble empire, is to stop them.
Putin doesn’t need you here defending his aggression.
They’d better get used to it. While I would never be so naive to think European nations would be true Republics (we’re not anymore, but could be), former Eastern Bloc nations are moving further away from Russian style thought.
They don't have to invade western Europe. All they want to do is invade eastern Ukraine. The European NATO countries would be powerless to stop them.
Putin doesn’t need you here defending his aggression.
lol...whatever you say, dude
Inside every Russian, there's a little American trying to get out, right?
Huh? They are already doing that, and you are correct that NATO is not considering it an act of war, but what does that have to do with your goofy claim that you made?
“”It means that even if Ukraine was in NATO and even if Russia invaded, France and Germany and Italy and Greece and the UK would be incapable of mounting a significant military response.””
If they want to look at a real threat, they'd be well advised to look East. China needs resources and food for their 1B plus population. Russia's population is 1/10th of their neighbor's. That's more of a potential problem for them than NATO is.
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