NATO Opens (Another) Command Post Near Russian Border; Kremlin Warns Against “Cold War Logic”
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
09/03/2015
As documented here earlier this week, things are blowing up in Ukraine again – literally.
On Monday, after a preliminary vote in parliament in favor of a constitutional amendment granting rebel-held territories increased autonomy (a condition of Minsk II), a volunteer fighter from the Svoboda Party’s Sich Battalion lobbed a grenade at Ukrainian National Guard soldiers killing three and injuring more than 100.
The violence underscores the extent to which Ukraine’s fiercely nationalist volunteer battalions (some of which have called for the establishment of a “Christian Taliban” and the burning of Moscow) are in no way, shape, or form prepared to accept any compromise which they feel undermines the effort to push back against the Russian-backed separatists operating in the east.
On a more general level, Monday’s events draw a line under the fact that this is one proxy war which isn’t about to die down meaning tensions between Moscow and the West are set to remain elevated for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, Moscow has refused to participate in a restructuring of Ukraine’s debt. As we detailed earlier this week, Moscow is holding out for full payment on a $3 billion loan Vladimir Putin made to Ukraine in 2013 in a failed attempt to support then-President Viktor Yanukovych. Of course Yanukovych was run out of the country last year following a wave of John McCain-attended protests and so as you might imagine, the Kremlin was not at all pleased with the prospect of taking a 20% upfront hit from a debtor country with which Russia is now essentially at war.
As you can see, deescalation is simply not in the cards here and now, less than three months after deploying heavy weapons in Poland and conducting war games that looked suspiciously like a rehearsal for a Ukraine siege, NATO has opened a new command post in Lithuania. Here’s WSJ with the story:
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization inaugurated a new command post in Vilnius Lithuania on Thursday, one of six across the alliance’s eastern border meant to shore up the region’s defenses against Russia.
For first time, the new command posts put a permanent—but very small—alliance presence on the border of Russia, a move that has rankled Moscow but which NATO leaders hope will deter Vladimir Putin from stirring unrest.
For the alliance, the new headquarters are meant to create a NATO presence without violating its 1997 promise not to permanently station troops on Russia’s borders.
The Rest…HERE
